Some of the very best Division I college golfers in the
country were on display last weekend when the Southeastern Conference and
Atlantic Coast Conference held their respective championship tournaments. Great
golf ensued.
The SEC decided to mimic the format of the NCAA Championship
with 54 holes of stroke play to determine eight match-play qualifiers and an
individual champion followed by a day of quarterfinals and semifinals and then
the final.
The event produced the kind of drama that has made the NCAA
such a draw on The Golf Channel since match play was introduced into the mix.
In the end, Vanderbilt, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat
rankings, won the first SEC title in school history with a 3-2 victory over No.
15 Texas A&M that capped four days of amazing golf at Sea Island Golf
Club’s Seaside Course at St. Simons Island, Ga.
It started with a bang as Florida’s Alejandro Tosti, a
junior from Argentina, blitzed the 7,005-yard, par-70 Seaside Course layout
with a 6-under-par 64 that led the No. 6 Gators to a sparkling 11-under 269 team
total and the opening-round lead.
Florida couldn’t sustain its momentum in the afternoon of
the Friday double round, posting a 9-over 289, but Tosti kept it up with a
3-under 69 that gave him a one-shot lead in the individual chase.
It was Vanderbilt, though, which owned the final day of
stroke play. Patrick Martin, a sophomore from Birmingham, Ala., and Theo
Humphrey, a junior from Greenwich, Conn., both came in with a 4-under 66 as the
Commodores carded an 8-under 272 for an 11-under 829 total.
That gave them the top seed for match play with Texas
A&M finishing second, six shots back of Vandy at 5-under 835. No. 7 LSU,
which put together a pretty strong final round of 5-under 275 itself, finished
third at 3-under 837 and Florida was another shot back in fourth at 2-under
838.
Martin’s 66, his second of the tournament, enabled him to
catch Tosti at 10-under 200 and force a playoff for the individual title. Tosti
closed with a 3-under 67.
Tosti captured the title with a four on the second playoff
hole, about the only thing Vanderbilt did not win during the weekend.
Humphrey’s final-round 66 left him alone in 12th
place at 1-under 209. Will Gordon, a sophomore from Davidson, N.C., finished
tied for 18th at 2-over 212, John Augenstein, a freshman from
Owensboro, Ky., finished tied for 27th at 4-over 214 and Matthias
Schwab, the Commodores’ veteran senior, finished tied for 33rd at
5-over 215.
Schwab, though, saved his best stuff for the final round, a
1-under 69 that was a big part of Vanderbilt’s final push to the top seed.
But it was Augenstein, the freshman, who would be the hero of
match play for the Commodores.
Augenstein, Gordon and Schwab won their matches in a 3-2
quarterfinal win over No. 23 Mississippi. Texas A&M rolled to a 5-0
decision over No. 24 Missouri. Florida survived with a 3-2 win over No. 30 South
Carolina when Tosti outlasted Will Miles, a sophomore from Hilton Head Island,
S.C., in 20 holes and No. 38 Alabama
earned a 3.5-1.5 win over LSU in a mild upset, if there is such a thing as an
upset in match play.
Augenstein holed a 10-foot putt to defeat Florida’s Andy
Zhang on the 20th hole and deliver a 3-2 semifinal win for
Vanderbilt over Florida. The playoff participants for the individual title,
Tosti and Martin met again with Tosti again prevailing, claiming a 2 and 1
decision. Texas A&M earned the other spot in the final with a 3-2 victory
over Alabama.
The spotlight again landed on Augenstein in Monday’s final
and he came through again, this time making a par on the 14th hole
at the Seaside Course, the 23rd hole of the match, to defeat Andrew
Paysse, a junior from Temple, Texas, for the winning point in a 3-2 Vanderbilt
victory.
Martin and Humphrey also earned match wins in the victory
over the Aggies.
The ACC didn’t go to match play, but it did finish up with a
four-man playoff for the individual title. With a forecast for bad weather
heading for the Musgrove Mill Golf Course in Clinton, S.C. Sunday, the
tournament finished up with a 36-hole Saturday windup.
Virginia’s Jimmy Stanger, a senior from Tampa, Fla., needed
to hole a six-foot birdie putt on his final hole, the ninth at Musgrove Mill,
and he got it to fall to join the playoff. Stanger was then the only player of
the four to birdie the first playoff hole, the 18th at Musgrove
Mill, to capture the ACC individual title.
The birdie on the final hole of regulation gave Stanger a
1-under 71 on the back end of Saturday’s double round over the 6,951-yard,
par-72 Musgrove Mill layout and a 5-under 211 total.
He was joined at that figure by North Carolina’s Ben
Griffin, a junior from Chapel Hill, N.C. who had gone 7-under in the first 36
holes only to fall back with a 2-over 74 in the final round, Wake Forest’s Paul
McBride, a junior from England who had a final round of 3-under 69, and
Clemson’s Bryson Nimmer, a sophomore from Bluffton, S.C. who matched par in the
final round with a 72.
The team title went to No. 21 Duke, giving the Blue Devils a
sweep of the men’s and women’s ACC titles, no easy feat in a conference filled
with talented players of both genders.
Duke jumped out with an 11-under 277 in Friday’s opening
round and fiercely protected its advantage during Saturday’s double round. The
Blue Devils added a 3-under 285 in the middle round and finished up with an
even-par 288 to finish at 14-under 850.
That gave Duke a 12-shot advantage over runnerup Clemson,
ranked 14th. The Tigers finished with a 1-over 289 for a 2-under 862
total. It was another five shots back to No. 9 Wake Forest in third at 3-over
867.
It was a remarkably balanced effort by Duke with the five
players in its lineup all within four shots of each other and landing from tied
for fifth to 14th place in the individual standings.
The Blue Devils were led by Alex Smalley, a sophomore from
Wake Forest, N.C. who finished tied for fifth at 4-under 212, just missing the
playoff for the individual title. Smalley finished up with 69 and 70 in
Saturday’s double round.
Jake Shuman, a junior from Neeham, Mass, finished tied for
eighth at 2-under 214 despite a final-round 75, Alexander Matlari, a senior
from Germany, and Matt Oshrine, a senior from Baltimore, both finished in the
group tied for 10th at 1-under 215, and Chandler Eaton, a freshman
from Alpharetta, Ga., finished alone in 14th at even-par 216.
But it was such a team win that Duke tossed the score of its
top finisher, Smalley, in the Blue Devils’ best round, the 11-under 277 opening
round. Shuman and Oshrine carded 68s, Matlari had a 69 and Eaton matched par
with a 72 while Smalley checked in at 1-over 73.
Such is the talent at these two events that two Bucks County
guys didn’t even make the lineup for their respective teams for the conference
championships.
Wake Forest’s lineup did not include sophomore Kyle Sterbinsky,
the former Peddie School standout from Yardley. Sterbinsky was very solid for
the Demon Deacons in the postseason as a freshman last spring. It will be
interesting to see if he can play his way into the lineup for next month’s
regionals.
The lineup for SEC champion Vanderbilt did not include
senior Zach Herr, the former Council Rock North standout. Still a good enough
player to earn medalist honors at a U.S. Open local qualifier last spring in
western Pennsylvania, Herr just can’t crack the lineup for the talented
Commodores.
Many of the teams that teed it up at Sea Island and Musgrove
Mill last weekend will earn berths in next month’s NCAA regionals. They’re that
good and their conference championships reflected that level of play.
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