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"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
June 11, 2010
Seconds
after Oklahoma State’s Kevin Tway missed the putt that allowed
Augusta State to win an improbable national championship at The
Honors Course last Sunday, a celebratory melee was touched off,
with players, coaches, fans and family exchanging hugs and high
fives all around.
In the
middle of the celebration was UTC coach Mark Guhne, who over the
years has befriended Augusta State coach Josh Gregory and his
players. It was only natural that Guhne and Gregory became
friends. Both have taken their programs to the
mountaintop—remember the Mocs’ No. 1 rankings in September 2008
and September 2009—despite the odds being stacked against them.
“We’re good
friends,” Guhne said. “And our players are good friends. We’ve
gotten close to all of them. If his kids or mine are on the road
in the summer, playing in some amateur event, we support each
other. If one of his players is at the Southern Amateur and I’m
there, and he needs something, he knows all he has to do is ask.”
Of course
Guhne wishes his team’s long-standing goal of playing for the
national championship in its hometown had been realized. But in
watching Augusta State win the national championship, he came away
with renewed vigor that anything is possible.
“I wish the
season started tomorrow,” Guhne said. “It can be done. We can
compete. That’s what’s neat about college golf over any other
sport. Football and baseball are sports where I would think you’d
have to have more resources to compete.
“In golf, as
long as you have adequate funding, you can make things happen,
because there are a lot of kids out there who want to work and get
better so they can do special things like this.
“It was
bittersweet not being here [to compete], but getting to watch Josh
and the boys all week was fantastic.”
Much was
made over a perceived David and Goliath match-up for the national
championship, but no coach or player among the 30 teams that
competed at The Honors thought of Augusta State as a lightweight.
Guhn placed the Jaguars in a group of five teams—Oklahoma State,
Stanford, Oregon and Washington were the others—that stood out
above the pack in college golf this season.
UTC has been
there, as evidenced by those No. 1 rankings. Any coach will tell
you that the only ranking that matters is the final ranking, and
that’s true. But if the Mocs had what it takes to ascend to No. 1
for a day, a week or a month, they are more than capable of doing
what Augusta State did.
That’s
especially true now that the NCAA has switched its format to 54
holes of stroke play and three days of match play.
Chances are
good had the tournament remained at stroke play, Oklahoma State
would have won the last two national championships. The Cowboys
led by 13 shots after stroke play in 2009, only to lose to Georgia
in the first round of match play. Last week, they overtook
second-round leader Florida State and were the top qualifiers in
stroke play, by four shots.
Match play
brings an element of unpredictability to the tournament. Teams
that have one or two players who make a lot of birdies but who
derail themselves in stroke play with one bad hole a round can be
dangerous in match play.
Guhne is
more excited about the future than ever, because he knows Augusta
State is built just like his program.
“We take
kids who nobody heard of from Georgia, then recruit a couple of
international kids,” Gregory said. “We play with a chip on our
shoulder, maybe because our kids thought they got overlooked. They
work hard to try and prove that people were wrong about them.”
UTC does the
same thing, except it mines Tennessee for those players overlooked
by SEC schools. Add in the occasional player from Sweden or
England and you’ve got a team.
Augusta
State’s starters included three former Georgia high school
players, an Australian and the big Swede Henrik Norlander, who
took it to Oklahoma State’s Morgan Huffman in match play.
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As usual,
the Honors Course was a great tournament venue. Heavy rains early
in the week and the lack of wind made the course a bit easier than
it might have otherwise played, but it was still a great test, and
it once again produced a worthy champion. There’s probably not a
better story behind any NCAA champion in any sport this year.
It’s certain
the NCAA will want to return to The Honors again, and sooner than
the 14 years it took from the first time the tournament was played
there. The question is, when?
In the
meantime, The Honors will continue the mission begun by the late
Jack Lupton and continue to be a host venue for significant
amateur championships. Next up is the 2011 U.S Senior Women’s
Amateur. And in 2014, the Southern Amateur will make its third
appearance at the course.
Like Lupton,
I’m still hoping the USGA will one day see fit to bring the Walker
Cup to The Honors. That would be the ultimate tribute for a man
who gave so much support—financial and otherwise—to amateur golf
in general, and the USGA in particular.
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