October 1, 2024 • by Dan Davies. Photographs: TCU / Ryan Kuttler for Northwestern Athletics / Carla Wehmeyer for Arkansas State
The Ben Hogan Collegiate... Blessings Collegiate Invitational... The Windon Memorial Classic... The Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate... Bayou City Collegiate Classic... Ironwood Collegiate Classic...
A stacked 15-school field at Colonial Country Club included four teams – Auburn (No. 1 in the current Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll), Vanderbilt (4), North Carolina (16) and Georgia Tech (17) – that advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship last May, and 11 teams that competed in stroke play. Eight other teams were ranked in the most recent top-25 by GCAA members.
Oklahoma (8) continued in its rich seam of form, winning by four over Texas and six over 2024 National Champions Auburn. Coach Ryan Hybl’s team arrived off the back of a victory in the recent Texas Valero Collegiate and was quickly back in the groove, getting to nine under par thru 36 holes on a Gil Hanse-restored layout that hosts the PGA Tour’s annual Charles Schwab Challenge.
Texas stayed in OU’s slipstream, firing a low second round of seven under to close the gap to two shots, but Oklahoma stood firm in the last round. All five of its players finished the tournament inside the top 30.
‘Just a really phenomenal week from the guys,’ Coach Hybl told the Oklahoma website. ‘For us to go wire-to-wire against the best field in college golf is really incredible. Our guys were really solid from top to bottom, I thought, this week. I'm seeing a ton of growth from our guys in terms of our maturity and how we approach the game, which is all I can ask for.’
North Carolina’s David Ford (above) has been quietly putting together an impressive sequence of fall season results. A T8 at the Sahalee Players Championship and a T6 at the Valero suggest the Tar Heels’ all-time leader in stroke average, score to par and average score to par per round is returning to something approaching his best.
Ford was tied for the 36-hole lead at 6-under with Daniel Bennett of Texas. Two Auburn players — Brendan Valdes and Billy Davis — , closely followed by a trio from Oklahoma — Matthew Troutman, Ryder Cowan and Drew Goodman, gave chase but Ford outlasted them all.
Four birdies in his first 14 holes of the final round provided a five-shot advantage, more than enough to secure a third college title. The left-hander’s final winning margin was two shots over Valdes, who closed with a two-under-par 68, and three over Goodman, Davis and Bennett.
LSU pulled away to win the Blessings Collegiate Invitational in Fayetteville, handing new coach Jake Amos a second win of the season. The Tigers closed with an 280 (-8) to get to two under par, 16 shots clear of Mississippi State in second place.
‘I couldn’t have asked for a better start,’ Amos told the LSU Sports website. ‘The group that we’ve got is very competitive, and they love to win. They’ve bought into how I like to operate and hopefully we get a few more wins. It was an unusual format, but I think it really showed our team chemistry out there.’
Playing alongside his teammates, freshman Arni Sveinsson (above, center) made it a clean sweep for LSU by winning the individual event. The Icelander took the lead with a second-round 67 and made four consecutive birdies in the course of an up and down closing 71 (-1) to seal a first college victory in just his third event.
Sveinsson was pursued by one of his LSU teammates. Algot Kleen already has an individual win under his belt this fall, taking the season-opening Visit Knoxville Collegiate title, and on this occasion he could see exactly what the leader was doing.
Since transferring from East Tennessee State. Kleen has quicky become a linchpin. He got it going again in the last round at The Blessings; eight birdies and an eagle added up to 63 (-9), a new individual scoring record for the tournament.
LSU Sports reported that the score was one short of the lowest round in program history: 62s shot by Sam Burns in 2017 and Luis Gagne in 2018. It nevertheless got the senior to five under par for 54 holes, just two shy of Sveinsson.
‘It was definitely weird, playing with all of your teammates,’ Sveinsson explained afterwards. ‘But if we were playing well, we were able to feed off of each other’s energy and that worked really well for us.’
Arizona came out on top at the Windon Memorial Classic, hosted by Northwestern, shooting a team total of 842 (-10) to win by three over Marquette.
The Wildcats, No.13 in the most recent Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll, hit the front at Conway Farms GC with a six-under-par opening round before extending their lead to seven shots by the end of a second round delayed by bad light.
Arizona’s five-under-par closing total was just too good for Marquette, which closed with a best-of-the-tournament 275, nine under par.
The Golden Eagles were led by Patrick Adler (below) who clinched his first collegiate title. Tiger Christensen (-6) and Zach Pollo (-5), both of Arizona, and Jacob Modleski of Notre Dame were Adler’s closest pursuers some five shots behind.
Adler finished last season at No. 894 in the National Collegiate Golf Rankings but over the summer he won the South of Ireland Amateur Open Championship at Lahinch and finished 11th in the Wisconsin State Open.
The Marquette senior opened the tournament with a 65 (-6), the lowest round of his college career, and never looked like being caught, finishing on 10 under par.
Helping Adler push Marquette to a fine second place finish was the highly ranked Johan Widal, who jumped 34 places with a closing 66. Northwestern finished in third on two over par, while Illinois and Pepperdine, the other top-25 teams in the field, were sixth and seventh respectively.
Photography by Ryan Kuttler / Northwestern Athletics
Arkansas State capitalized on its 11-shot lead thru 36 holes to seal another emphatic victory in its home tournament. The Red Wolves finished at 42 under par, 15 shots clear of Oklahoma Christian from DII. Seven A-State players finished inside the top 20, including five in the top 10.
Of those players, Thomas Schmidt (above) and Milan Reed, who was competing as an individual, occupied the first two places on the leaderboard. Schmidt set a new program record low 54-hole total after carding a closing 65 to finish the tournament on 19 under par and claim his third individual title.
This was A-State’s ninth consecutive victory in the event. Jacksonville State (-17), Austin Peay (-17) and Texas State (-14) rounded out the top five.
Photographs by Carla Wehmeyer / Arkansas State
Sam Houston came through a tightly packed final day to claim the Bayou City Collegiate Classic hosted by Rice. The Bearkats closed with a two-under-par 286 to get to 27 under par for 54 holes. It was good enough for a two-shot win over Abilene Christian and four over Rice.
Medalist honors were shared by Luke Boandl and Daniel Zou of the home team and Noah McWilliams of LSU, who was competing as an individual. Zou came charging through with a 66 (-6) in the final round, which included seven birdies and two in his last two holes.
East Carolina won its home tournament with a 36-hole total of 28 under par. The third round was cancelled due to rain, leaving the Pirates two ahead of Long Island and four clear of Florida Atlantic. Owls freshman Biagio Gagliardi (-13) won the individual title by three shots.