With four of the five players who were in the lineup for Auburn’s victory in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. still there five months later, the Tigers claimed a 3-2 victory over Georgia Tech in the final of the East Lake Cup Oct. 30th at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club.
One of those players was redshirt senior Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York and No. 39 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Bacha delivered a full point for the reigning Southeastern Conference champion Tigers with a hard-fought 2-up decision over the Yellow Jackets’ Kale Fontenot, a sophomore from Lafayette, La.
The East Lake Cup has become a fixture on the college golf scene, essentially wrapping up the fall portion of the season with a meeting of the four semifinalists in match play at the previous spring’s NCAA Championship.
The Stanford women’s team, the reigning NCAA champion, declined its East Lake Cup invitation and was replaced by SEC power LSU.
Southern California, which lost to then Pac-12 rival Stanford in the NCAA semifinals at La Costa last spring, captured the East Lake Cup women’s crown for the fourth time in program history with a 3.5-1.5 victory over LSU.
Haven’t really had a chance to get into much college golf on the national level this fall, so the East Lake Cup is always a good chance to catch up.
Auburn didn’t have a win before East Lake this fall, but the Tigers have been very competitive against some loaded fields. It’s never a bad thing to get to compete against some top-notch competition in match play and Auburn showed it still knows how to grind out some wins in the format that will determine the national champion when the NCAA’s return to La Costa next spring.
Auburn probably wasn’t all that surprised to run into Georgia Tech, a perennial power in the Atlantic Coast Conference, in the East Lake Cup final.
It was basically a home game for the Yellow Jackets with East Lake less than 10 miles from their downtown Atlanta campus. It’s not Georgia Tech’s home course, but I’m sure Bruce Heppler, in his 29th season at the helm, can get his guys on the course every now and then, especially with an East Lake Cup appearance on the schedule.
Georgia Tech grabbed the top seed for match play by edging Auburn and fellow ACC entry Florida State by a shot in the one-day qualifying round Oct. 28th.
Big Ten representative Ohio State finished in fourth place in qualifying and was swept, 4-0, by the Yellow Jackets in the semifinals the following day. Auburn edged Florida State, 3-1, in a rematch of last spring’s Final Match in the other semifinal.
Ryan Eshleman, a redshirt senior from Birmingham, Ala., put the first point on the board for Auburn in the final with a gutty 1-up win over Georgia Tech’s Aidan Tran, a junior from Fresno, Calif.
It completed a 2-0 run through match play for Eshleman, who had given the Tigers an early advantage a day earlier in the semifinals against Florida State with a 5 and 4 victory over Patrick McCann, a senior from Tallahassee, Fla.
Bacha’s victory over Fontenot left Auburn needing just one point to finish the job and the Tigers’ stud, Jackson Koivun, a sophomore from Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 2 in the WAGR, responded with a 2 and 1 victory over reigning NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai, a junior from Singapore and No. 30 in the WAGR.
Koivun was the first Auburn player in the history of the
program to receive the Fred Haskins Award that goes to the top player in
college golf last spring.
Georgia Tech got a point from Albert Hansson, a freshman from Sweden who pulled out a 2-up decision over Brendan Valdes, a senior from Orlando, Fla. and No. 10 in the WAGR.
The Yellow Jackets’ other point came from Benjamin Reuter, a junior from The Netherlands and No. 66 in the WAGR who claimed a 2 and 1 win over Josiah Gilbert, a sophomore from Australia and No. 24 in the WAGR.
If you had a Tuesday afternoon off a couple of days before Halloween and could tune in to The Golf Channel, you were treated to the two best amateur players on the planet, Auburn’s Koivun and Florida State’s Luke Clanton, a junior from Hialeah, Fla. and No. 1 in the WAGR, going at it in the semifinals.
All Clanton did last summer was earn back-to-back top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, proving that the best college kids aren’t all that far removed from golf’s big leagues.
This round went to Clanton, who earned a 3 and 2 win for one of the Seminoles’ two full points, but you get the feeling these two will be running into one other on some big stages for years to come.
Bacha was trailing Florida State’s Tyler Weaver, a sophomore from England and No. 73 in the WAGR, 1-down through 16 holes when Auburn clinched the victory. Weaver won all three of his matches in Florida State’s run to a runnerup finish in the NCAA Championship last spring at La Costa.
Valdes, however, captured a 3 and 1 verdict over Jack Bigham, a junior from England and No. 54 in the WAGR, and Gilbert knocked off Carson Brewer, a sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., 2 and 1, for the clinching point for the Tigers.
Georgia Tech’s 4-0 sweep of Ohio State included a 1-up victory for Tran over Joe Wilson IV, a junior from West Chester, Ohio, a 2 and 1 decision for Hansson over Topher Reed, a junior from Fairview Park, Ohio, a 1-up win for Fontenot over Vaughn Harber, a freshman from Blacklick, Ohio, and a 2 and 1 verdict for Tai over Tyler Sabo, a redshirt sophomore from Ashland, Ohio.
Reuter’s match with Jack Vojtko, a sophomore from Stow, Ohio was halted when the overall outcome was no longer in doubt.
It was announced this week that Florida State’s Clanton and Auburn’s Koivun and Valdes are among the 16 players invited to participate in a practice session for candidates for the United States team that will take on Great Britain & Ireland in what promises to be an intriguing Walker Cup Match at the Cypress Point Club on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula in September of 2025.
The Walker Cup practice session will be conducted, under the watchful eye of U.S. captain Nathan Smith, a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and the 1994 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville, from Dec. 14 to 16 at MacArthur Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club and The Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Fla.
Florida State got match wins from Clanton, Weaver and McCann in a 3.5-1.5 victory over Ohio State in the third-place match.
Vojtko had made a big splash on the opening day of the East Lake Cup when he blitzed the East Lake layout with a sizzling 6-under 66 to claim individual medalist honors in qualifying for match play.
Vojtko was 1-under when he arrived on the 13th tee. He promptly made a birdie at 13, hit his second shot at the par-5 14th to five feet and made eagle and added birdies at 16 and 17 to get it to 6-under.
Auburn’s Bacha earned runnerup honors with a sparkling 5-under 67 of his own.
Hansson finished alone in third place with a 4-under 68, leading the way for Georgia Tech, which claimed the top seed in match play with an 8-under 280 total.
Florida State and Auburn finished a shot behind Georgia Tech, each ending up with a 7-under 281 total and setting the stage for a rematch of last spring’s NCAA Championship Final Match in the semifinals. Ohio State finished in fourth place with a 2-over 290 total.
Fontenot backed up Hansson for the Yellow Jackets with a 3-under 69 that left him in a tie for fourth place in the individual standings with the Florida State trio of Clanton, Weaver and McCann.
Reuter added a 2-under 70 for Georgia Tech as he ended up in a tie for eighth place in the individual chase with Auburn’s Koivun.
Tai had the final counter for Georgia Tech as he posted a 1-over 73 that left him a tie for 11th place. Tran rounded out the Georgia Tech lineup as he finished alone in 19th place with a 6-over 78.
Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings was Auburn’s Valdes, who finished alone in 10th place with a 1-under 71.
On the women’s side, Southern California, behind its fabulous freshman Jasmine Koo, a native of Cerritos, Calif. and No. 2 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), captured the team crown with its victory over SEC power LSU.
It was Southern Cal’s third team crown of the fall campaign with Koo cruising to a three-shot victory in qualifying for match play for the third straight individual title of her rookie season with the Trojans.
There were signs in the summer that this was coming. Koo reached the semifinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. before falling to Rianne Malixi, who would go to capture the U.S. Girls’ Junior title and the U.S. Women’s Amateur crown at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. Koo reached the second round of match play at Southern Hills.
Three of the four teams that gathered for the East Lake Cup, Southern Cal, its crosstown rival UCLA and Oregon are now part of the Big Ten’s western wing.
Koo set the tone in the final against LSU with a hard-fought 2-up victory over Aine Donegan, a senior from Ireland and No. 74 in the Women’s WAGR. Donegan was a member of a talented Great Britain & Ireland team that defeated the United States, 10.5-9.5, in a hard-fought Curtis Cup Match at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England late in the summer.
Xin (Cindy) Kou, a senior from China, picked up another full point for Southern California with a 4 and 2 victory over Taylor Riley, a junior from San Diego, Calif.
Bailey Shoemaker, a sophomore from Dade City, Fla. and No. 64 in the Women’s WAGR, delivered the clinching point for the Trojans as she cruised to a 6 and 4 decision over Elsa Svensson, a senior from Sweden.
Catherine Park, a junior from Irvine, Calif. and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR, was tied with Rocio Tejedo, a freshman from Spain and No. 37 in the Women’s WAGR, when Shoemaker’s win sealed the outcome in favor of the Trojans.
LSU earned a full point from Josefin Widal, a freshman from Sweden who claimed a 4 and 3 verdict over Kylie Chong, a freshman from Torrance, Calif.
Kou, Shoemaker and Park were all in the Southern Cal lineup when the Trojans fell to then Pac-12 rival Stanford in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at La Costa last spring.
Most of the drama at East Lake for the Trojans came in their 3-2 semifinal victory Oct. 29th over UCLA in the kind of battle you’d expect in what has always been an epic rivalry, no matter the sport.
Kou and Chong made the difference, both needing three extra holes to claim the decisive points for the Trojans.
Kou outlasted Natalie Vu, a senior from San Jose, Calif., on the 21st hole of their match and Chong went to the 21st hole before finally claiming a win over Tiffany Le, a senior from Covina, Calif.
Park picked up the other full point for Southern Cal with a 6 and 5 victory over Zoe Antoniette Campos, a senior from Valencia, Calif. and No. 9 in the Women’s WAGR.
It was the next-to-last appearance in UCLA’s familiar powder blue and gold for Campos, who is turning pro and will compete in the LPGA Q-Series, a 90-hole test that tees off Dec. 5 at Magnolia Grove Golf Course’s Falls and Crossings courses in Mobile, Ala.
UCLA got its two points with a couple of huge wins, Caroline Canales, a senior from Calabassas, Calif., cooling off the red-hot Koo with a 1-up decision, and Francesca Fiorellini, a freshman from Italy, dealing Shoemaker a 2 and 1 setback. They may have changed conference affiliations, but the USC-UCLA rivalry is going nowhere, particularly in women’s golf.
A couple of LSU players had to work overtime to enable the Tigers to pull out a 3-2 victory over Oregon in the other semifinal.
Widal needed 20 holes to pull out a win over Karen Tsuru, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif., and Tejedo edged Tong An, a freshman from China, on the 19th hole.
Donegan’s match-play prowess was on display in a convincing 6 and 5 victory over Ting-Hsuan Huang, a sophomore from Taiwan, that delivered another full point for LSU.
Oregon’s talented sophomore Kiara Romero, a sophomore from San Jose, Calif. and No. 16 in the Women’s WAGR, earned a full point for the Ducks with a 5 and 3 decision over Riley. Romero captured the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 2023 at the Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, a freshman from Thailand and No. 50 in the Women’s WAGR, picked up another point for Oregon with a 2-up victory over Svensson.
UCLA got match wins from Campos, Fiorellini, Vo and Le in a 4-1 victory over LSU in the third-place match.
Koo’s sizzling 7-under 65 gave her a three-shot victory over her teammate Park in qualifying for match play and led Southern Cal to the top seed with a 6-under 282 total.
LSU matched par with a 288 to finish in second place behind Tejedo, who ended up in third place in the individual standings with a 3-under 69 that left her a shot behind Park.
Oregon finished six shots behind LSU in third place in the team standings with a 6-over 294 behind a fourth-place finish in the individual standings from Vinijchaitham, who ended up a shot behind Tejedo with a 2-under 70.
UCLA finished three shots behind Oregon in fourth place with a 9-over 297 total, setting the stage for its Crosstown Showdown with Southern Cal in the semifinals.
Backing up the 1-2 finish by Koo and Park for Southern Cal was Shoemaker, who matched par with a 72 to end up alone in seventh place in the individual standings.
Chong earned the final counter for the Trojans as she finished in a tie for 16th place with a 5-over 77. Kou rounded out the Southern Cal lineup as she finished in 20th place with a 79.
UCLA’s Vu shared fifth place in the individual chase with LSU’s Riley, each finishing up a shot behind Vinijchaitham with a 1-under 71.
Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings, two shots behind Shoemaker in a tie for eighth place at 2-over 74, were LSU’s Svensson and Donegan and Oregon’s An.
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