The Florida men’s golf team had a week to forget at the NCAA Championships in Woodstock, Ga., and Alabama had one it will remember forever.
UF put itself in a deep hole after it shot a 291 (+11) in the opening round, and the Gators never recovered. Their 857 (+17) after three rounds was good enough for only 25th place – far from the eighth-place cutoff needed to advance into the weekend’s match play.
“Unfortunately, more of the same,” coach Buddy Alexander said in a release. “We actually got off to a great start this morning. There’s a tough stretch of holes, the 15th through the 18th. I knew if we got by that then maybe we could have a special day, but those holes just ate us alive. The last nine was just so-so.”
The Crimson Tide’s Day 1 and Day 2 scores of 275 (-5) and 276 (-4) were good enough to offset an average third round of 282 (+2). On Day 3, it ended that portion of the competition tied for third overall.
After defeating New Mexico in the match play quarterfinals 4-1 and winning against host Georgia Tech in the semifinals, Alabama matched up against fifth-seeded Illinois in Sunday’s match-play finals.
Bobby Wyatt’s performance dominated match play – at one point he won seven straight holes. He clinched his round after only 13 holes, winning 6-5.
Fellow junior Cory Whitsett also exhibited dominance on his first nine, taking the turn at 5-up. Illini sophomore Alex Burge did not go down quietly, however, closing the gap to three holes. But in the end, a missed par putt on Hole 15 resulted in a halved hole and a conceded match to the Crimson Tide.
The win is redemption for an Alabama team that came within one hole of winning the championship last season, and the title was the first in school history for a men’s sport other than football.
“I think (what happened last year) makes it more special,” Alabama coach Jay Seawell said in a release. “It makes you appreciate it a great deal more. It is so hard to even get here. This team has been on a mission, a mission, a mission. That is the leadership of [senior] Scott Strohmeyer and all of the guys on this team. It is their championships, and we won today because of them.”
