The Southeastern Conference is so tough that all 14 of its
teams were extended bids to the NCAA regionals last spring.
And since going to a match-play format for the conference
championship to mimic what may be to come at the NCAA Championship, there has
been nothing but drama in determining the winner. Last spring it was Auburn
claiming a 3-2 victory over in-state rival Alabama with both then advancing all
the way to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship, the Crimson Tide actually
reaching the Final Match before falling to a powerful Oklahoma State team
playing on its home course.
It also earned Auburn and Alabama an invitation to the East
Lake Cup at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, broadcast by The Golf Channel
and acting as something of an exclamation point on the short, but never dull
fall portion of the college golf season.
The two ancient rivals forced a rematch of last spring’s SEC
title match by taking out higher-ranked teams Tuesday and Wednesday the Tigers,
No. 15 in the latest Golfstat
rankings (up one from No. 14 since the beginning of the week), made sure the
No. 6 Crimson Tide (up from No. 4 in the beginning of the week) would not have their
revenge.
Auburn claimed an impressive 4-1 win over a very talented
Alabama team on the 7,430-yard, par-72
East Lake layout. There is no guarantee they will meet again in the SEC
Championship, but it sure looks like both teams are quite capable of a deep run
in the NCAA Championship.
From that standpoint, a little match play is always good
preparation for what might be to come. Make the final eight in stroke play at
Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. next spring and you’re in match play.
And Auburn looks like it is going to be tough to beat if it
can get there. Wednesday’s win was the Tigers’ sixth in their last seven
match-play forays, their only loss at the hands of Oklahoma State in the NCAA
semifinals at Karsten Creek Golf Club.
Auburn got wire-to-wire victories from Jacob Solomon, a
senior from Dublin, Calif., Brandon Mancheno, a sophomore from Jacksonville,
Fla. and Wells Padgett, a sophomore from Wichita, Kan. It was Padgett who
drained a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give Auburn the
win over Alabama in the SEC final.
Solomon claimed a 2 and 1 win over Davis Shore, a sophomore
from Knoxville, Tenn., Mancheno downed Prescott Butler, a freshman from Old
Westbury, N.Y., 3 and 2 and Padgett beat Frankie Capan III, a freshman from
North Oaks, Minn., 4 and 3.
Auburn’s other win came from Trace Crawford, a senior from
Bluffton, S.C. who gutted out a 2 and 1 win over Davis Riley, a senior from
Hattiesburg, Miss. and the No. 10 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking
(WAGR).
Alabama’s point came from Wilson Furr, a sophomore from
Jackson, Miss. who knocked off Jovan Rebula, a junior from South Africa, 2 and
1. Rebula, the nephew of Ernie Els, captured The Amateur Championship at Royal
Aberdeen Golf Club in Scotland last summer.
No. 3 Duke claimed a 3-2 win over No. 1 Oklahoma State in
the consolation match. Two losses at East Lake doesn’t change the fact that the
reigning national champion Cowboys are going to be tough to beat next spring.
They got past Auburn and Alabama in their last two matches
at Karsten Creek last spring. That might be tough to do next spring.
Justin Silverstein suddenly found himself running the
Southern California women’s golf team this summer when the legendary Andrea
Gaston was wooed away from Los Angeles to College Station, Texas to do at Texas
A&M what she did at USC: Build a powerhouse program.
Well, nobody can accuse Gaston of leaving the cupboard bare.
Silverstein’s Kiddie Corps of four sophomores and a freshman made it three
straight tournament wins with a 3-2 victory over another powerful Pac-12
program in Stanford in the East Lake Cup final Wednesday over an East Lake layout
that measured 6,127 yards for the ladies.
It was the second straight East Lake Cup victory for
Southern Cal, which arrived in Atlanta as the No. 1 team in the latest Golfstat rankings. It was also the
second straight year the Trojans defeated their Pac-12 rival in the final.
It came down to the anchor match between Southern Cal’s
Gabriela Ruffels, a sophomore from Australia, and Stanford’s Andrea Lee, a
junior from Hermosa Beach, Calif. who is No. 7 in the Women’s World Amateur
Golf Ranking (WAGR).
Lee has tons of match-play experience. She’s represented the
United States on two Curtis Cup teams, one in hostile territory in 2016 and one
this summer in the friendly confines of Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale,
N.Y. Her Stanford teams have reached the semifinals of the last two NCAA
Championships where they suffered gut-wrenching setbacks to eventual champions
Arizona State and Arizona.
Ruffels was in deep, but she responded by winning the 16th
and 17th holes to claim a 2 and 1 win and clinch the match for the
Trojans. When it came to crunch time, it was the veteran Lee who made the
unforced errors.
But Stanford is still Stanford. The Cardinal’s ranking fell
from No. 11 to No. 13 since they arrived in Atlanta, but they still have Albane
Valenzuela, a junior from Switzerland who is No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR, and
Mika Liu, a sophomore from Beverly Hills, Calif.
Valenzuela rolled to a 6 and 4 victory over Southern Cal’s
Jennifer Chang, a sophomore from Cary, N.C. who can really play. And Liu
cruised to a 4 and 3 decision over Amelia Garvey, a sophomore from New Zealand.
Valenzuela was the individual medalist in qualifying Monday
and Stanford earned the top seed in match play. The Cardinal aren’t going
anywhere.
But the fourth member of Southern Cal’s freshman Fab Four
from last spring along with Ruffels, Chang and Garvey, Alyaa Abdulghany, a
sophomore from Newport Beach, Calif., took out Aline Krauter, a freshman from
Germany, 2 and 1. And Malia Nam, a freshman from Kailua, Hawaii, earned a 3 and
1 victory over Ziyi Wang, a senior from China.
And Ruffels finished the job.
A depleted Alabama, ranked seventh, edged reigning national
champion Arizona, ranked 14th, 3-2 in the consolation match, which
means both the men’s and women’s national champions left Atlanta with 0-2
records.
But there is a lot of golf to be played between the last day
of October and May. Three Pac-12 teams stand between No. 1 Southern Cal and No.
13 Stanford, No. 6 UCLA, the two-time reigning Pac-12 champion, No. 10 Arizona
State, the 2017 NCAA champion and No. 11 Washington, the 2016 NCAA champion.
And Arizona is right behind Stanford at No. 14.
Would anyone be the least bit surprised if three of the
final four women’s teams in the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club
are from the Pac-12 for the third straight year? You shouldn’t be.
No comments:
Post a Comment