Mississippi made its point loud and clear two springs ago when it won its first Southeastern Conference crown and backed it up by earning a trip to the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. Ole Miss wasn’t anybody’s weak sister in the SEC anymore.
If you didn’t get that particular memo, the Rebels reiterated it by taking the women’s crown in the East Lake Cup, which wrapped up Wednesday at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta with a 3-2 victory over SEC rival South Carolina.
Two Old Miss players shared medalist honors and led the Rebels to the top seed in match play and the Rebels proceeded to knock off Texas and South Carolina to take the title.
While college golf remains locked down in much of the country, The Golf Channel got four men’s teams and four women’s team together in Atlanta for what has become the highlight of the fall portion of the wraparound season each year.
The East Lake Cup usually pits the four semifinalists from the previous spring’s NCAA Championships in an NCAA Championship style event, a round of stroke play to establish seeding for a semifinal round of match play followed by a championship match.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but nothing about 2020 is normal. There were no NCAA Championships last spring and only some of the biggest conferences have so much as gotten off the ground for the wraparound 2020-2021 season. East Lake Cup organizers decided to take the top four teams in the Golfstat rankings when the 2019-’20 season came to a sudden halt March 19 to fill out the field.
While that turned out be Nos. 1 through 4 for the men, with the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Pac-12 not playing, it went all the way down to No. 12 among the women and that turned out to be Mississippi. Not sure if any of the ACC or Pac-12 teams are allowed to do their own thing or if the conferences are dictating to their member schools that they can’t compete. Like I said, in 2020 things can get confusing.
But give Ole Miss credit. It got the opportunity to compete and made the most of it.
Julia Johnson, a senior from St. Gabriel, La. was there two springs ago, winning a match in Ole Miss’ 3-2 victory over South Carolina in the SEC Championship final.
And she was there again Wednesday, pulling out a 1-up victory over South Carolina’s Lois Kaye Go, a senior from the Philippines, for the final point in the Rebels’ 3-2 victory in the East Lake Cup final. The win improved Johnson’s career mark in match play at Ole Miss to 8-0. At No. 7, South Carolina was the highest-ranked SEC team when the 2019-’20 season came to its premature end.
“This was a dream come true to try to play in this tournament, and win it is really just the cherry on top,” head coach Kory Henkes told the Old Miss website. “This is a surreal feeling being here, especially for Julia, who was here freshman year and has kind of seen where we have been and where we are.”
Kennedy Swann, a fifth-year player from Austin Texas, was there for the run to the SEC title and a berth in the NCAA Championship field two years ago as well. She and Ellen Hume, a junior from England, got Ole Miss off to a strong start to the week as they shared medalist honors, each carding a 3-under 69 over an East Lake layout that measured 6,240 yards and played to a par of 72, in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying.
They led Ole Miss to a a 5-under 283 team total that gave it the top seed in match play. The Rebels were the only team to finish under par. South Carolina was the runnerup with a 3-over 291 total followed by another SEC entry in Florida at 5-over 283, just two shots behind the Gamecocks in third place, and Texas, out of the Big 12, in fourth place with a 13-over 301 total.
Backing up Swann and Hume for the Rebels was Chiara Tamburlini, a sophomore from Switzerland who matched par with a 72. Johnson was the final counter for Ole Miss with a 1-over 73 and Andrea Lignell, a sophomore from Sweden rounded out the Old Miss lineup with a solid 4-over 76.
Ole Miss drew Texas in Tuesday’s semifinals and rolled to a 4.5-.5 victory. The Longhorns were ranked No. 2 and seemed poised for a deep postseason run when college golf was shut down in March.
Swann claimed a 1-up victory over Sophie Guo, a sophomore from Orlando, Fla., Hume pulled out a 2 and 1 decision over Kaitlyn Papp, a senior home girl from Austin, Texas who is No. 19 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Tamburlini earned a 2 and 1 win over another Austin home girl, freshman Bentley Cotton, and Johnson captured a 2 and 1 win over Hailee Cooper, a junior from Montgomery, Texas.
Lignell battled Ashley Park, a freshman from Irvine, Calif., to a draw.
One of the featured matches in the semifinals came in South Carolina’s 3.5-1.5 victory over Florida as the Gamecocks’ Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, outdueled Annabell Fuller, a sophomore from England and No. 41 in the Women’s WAGR, earning a 1-up victory.
South Carolina got two other full points in tight battles as Mathilda Claisse, a sophomore from France, edged Marina Escobar Domingo, a sophomore from Spain, 1-up, and Kaye Go needed 19 holes to pull out a victory over Clara Manzalini, a junior from Italy.
Florida’s lone full point came from Addie Baggarly, a junior from Jonesborough, Tenn. who defeated Thailand’s Pimnipa Panthong, the former Kent State standout who joined the Gamecocks for a fifth season, 2 and 1. South Carolina’s Paula Kirner, a freshman from Germany, earned a half-point with a tie against Florida’s Malsie Filler, a freshman from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Kaye Go and Panthong, Florida’s Escobar Domingo and Texas’ Guo shared third place in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying, each registering a 1-under 71 to finish two shots behind Mississippi’s Swann and Hume.
South Carolina got the jump on Ole Miss in Wednesday’s title match with Claisse knocking off Tamburlini, 3 and 2, and Roussin-Bouchard downing Swann by the same 3 and 2 margin.
But Hume, playing 1-under par golf for 12 holes, turned things around by dismantling Panthong, 7 and 6. Lignell evened things on the scoreboard with a 3 and 2 decision over Kirner. And Johnson finished the job, earning the deciding point with her 1-up win over Kaye Go.
In the consolation match, Florida rolled to a 4.5-.5 victory over Texas.
An interesting match there pitted Florida’s Fuller against Texas’ Papp. I’m thinking both might make their respective Curtis Cup teams next spring – assuming, of course, that the Curtis Cup Match at the Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales, rescheduled from last spring, is played. Fuller and Papp appeared to have made a strong case to make the Great Britain & Ireland team and the United States team, respectively, when the world shut down in March.
Fuller, the runnerup to Germany’s Aline Krauter, a junior at Stanford, in the Women’s Amateur Championship in the summer at West Lancashire, claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Papp.
South Carolina and Texas were each without one of their top players as the Gamecocks’ Ana Pelaez, a senior from Spain, and the Longhorns’ Agathe Laisne, a senior from France and No. 12 in the Women’s WAGR, are hanging back in Europe with travel still restricted because the pandemic continues to rage around the world.
Pelaez finished third in a Madrid Santander Golf Tour event last week while Laisne won a Ladies European Tour Access Series event in Spain earlier this month. Both will be valuable additions to the lineup for their respective teams if we can ever get some kind of handle on this pandemic.
The SEC teams got together for The Blessings Intercollegiate Invitational earlier this fall at The Blessings in Fayetteville, Ark., site of the 2019 NCAA Championship. South Carolina finished in third place behind Arkansas, playing on its home course, and LSU with Ole Miss taking fourth and Florida ending up sixth.
Texas got two events in before the East Lake Cup, most recently earning a runnerup finish behind Big 12 rival Baylor as the host for the Betsy Rawls Invitational at the UT Golf Club earlier this month.
On the men’s side, Pepperdine was the No. 1 team in the country when college golf was shut down in March. Fred Hawkins Award winner Sahith Theegala has moved on to professional golf, but Theegala had a talented group of youngsters behind him during the Wave’s run to the No. 1 ranking early in 2020.
And the Wave’s winning ways continued in Atlanta as Pepperdine claimed an impressive 4-1 victory over Oklahoma in Wednesday’s East Lake Cup final.
Oklahoma, No. 2 when the 2019-’20 season was halted last spring, headed a group of three Big 12 teams in the field at East Lake. The Sooners’ ancient rival, Texas, was ranked fourth behind Texas Tech when the season ended in March.
And the Sooners, winners of the 2017 NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., looked pretty impressive at East Lake, right up until they met up with Pepperdine in the title match.
Patrick Welch, a senior from Providence, R.I., earned medalist honors with a sparkling 5-under 67 over an East Lake layout that measured 7,034 yards and played to a par of 72 for the guys in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying. Oklahoma teammate Quade Cummins, a redshirt senior from Weatherford, Okla. and No. 17 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), shared second place with Pepperdine’s R.J. Manke, a senior from Lakewood, Wash., each signing for a 3-under 69.
Backing up Welch and Cummins for the Sooners in qualifying was Jonathan Brightwell, a redshirt senior from Charlotte, N.C. who finished in a tie for fourth place with a 2-under 70. Logan McAllister, a junior from Oklahoma City, Okla. was Oklahoma’s final counter as he matched par with a 72 and Garett Reband, a redshirt senior from Fort Worth, Texas and No. 12 in the WAGR, rounded out the Oklahoma lineup with a 2-over 74.
Oklahoma grabbed the top seed with a 10-under 278 total. Pepperdine was seven shots behind the Sooners in second place with a 3-under 285 with Texas Tech a shot behind the Wave in third place at 2-under 286 and Texas finishing fourth with an even-par 288 total.
Manke claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Cummins in Wednesday’s title match as the Wave never trailed in any of their four wins in the final.
Joe Highsmith, a senior from Lakewood, Wash., knocked off Welch, 5 and 4, Derek Hitchner, a senior from Minneapolis, Minn., beat McAllister, 3 and 2, and Dylan Menante, a sophomore from Carlsbad, Calif., rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Reband.
Brightbill picked up the lone point for Oklahoma with a 2 and 1 victory over William Mouw, a sophomore from Chino, Calif. who is No. 16 in the WAGR and might be the Wave’s most talented player.
The most interesting match of the week might very well have been the semifinal between Oklahoma and Texas. It seems like a decade ago, but it’s only been two springs since a talented group of youngsters for the Longhorns knocked off a supremely talented Oklahoma State team looking for a second straight NCAA title in the semifinals at The Blessings before falling to Stanford in the Final Match.
The Sooners pulled out a 3-2 victory over their bitter rival to reach the final.
All of Oklahoma’s wins came in tight matches. Two of the Sooners’ points came on the 19th hole as McAllister edged Parker Coody, one of Texas’s twin grandsons of 1971 Master champion Charlies Coody from Plano, Texas, and Brightbill pulled out a victory over Travis Vick, Texas’ talented sophomore from Houston. Parker Coody is No. 50 in the WAGR.
Oklahoma’s third point came from Cummins, who edged Christoffer Bring, a senior from Denmark.
Texas’ top guns came up big in match play as immensely talented senior, Cole Hammer, another Houstonian who is No. 22 in the WAGR, cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over Welch and junior Pierceson Coody, the other Coody twin who is No. 9 in the WAGR, was equally impressive in a 5 and 4 win over Reband. Pierceson Coody was the highest-ranked individual in the field.
Vick and Oklahoma’s Brightbill were two of the three players tied for fourth place in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying, each registering a 2-under 70.
Menante got the key win for Pepperdine in its 3-2 semifinal victory over Texas Tech as he pulled out a 2-up decision over Andy Lopez, a senior from Plano, Texas.
Hitchner rolled to a 6 and 4 decision over Garrett Martin, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas, and Highsmith claimed a 4 and 3 win over Markus Braadlie, a junior from Norway, to account for the Wave’s other two points. Martin led the way for Texas Tech in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying as he carded a 2-under 70 to join Texas’ Vick and Oklahoma’s Brightbill in the tie for fourth place.
Texas Tech got wins from Baard Skagen, a freshman from Norway who handed Manke a 4 and 3 setback, and J.D. Roller, a freshman from Jenks, Okla. who edged Mouw, 2 and 1.
Texas rolled to a 5-0 victory over Texas Tech in the third-place match.
No comments:
Post a Comment