Men's golf ties for Goodwin title

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

Victory! Mustangs Co-Champs Of The Goodwin
Mustangs tie with UAB at 23-under to share tournament title

March 28, 2015

STANFORD, Calif. (SMU) -- The SMU Mustangs men's golf team picked up its first win of the 2014-15 season, using a final round surge spurned by its two co-captains to tie UAB at 23-under and share the victory at The Goodwin at the Stanford Golf Course.

UAB led by one stroke with four players in the clubhouse, but an eagle-bogey-par finish on the last three holes from junior co-captain Bryson Dechambeau wound up knotting the team scores up at 817. Fellow junior co-captain Austin Smotherman tied the low round of the tournament with a career-best 62 (8-under par) on Saturday, carding six birdies and adding an eagle on the par-5 16th hole. Both players eagled the 16th hole and earned top-five finishes, with DeChambeau tying for third at 12-under and Smotherman winding up fifth at 8-under.

"They proved why they're two of the best players in the country," SMU head coach Jason Enloe said of his co-captains, who combined to shoot 13-under par in the final round.

As a team, SMU posted the low score of the day for the second straight round, shooting 10-under on Saturday after carding a 12-under round on Friday. Freshman Ben Baxter (1-over 71) and junior Ryan Burgess (2-over 72) added counting scores for the Mustangs, while sophomore Andrew Buchanan posted a 4-over 74 on Saturday.

"The kids played their heart out today," Enloe said. "Everybody did great. They did what they could and I am just so happy for them."

Baxter tied for 14th after shooting under par in each of the first two rounds. Smotherman's fifth-place result is his second top-five of the season, after he tied for fifth at the season-opening GolfWeek Conference Challenge.

"We've really played well the last five rounds," Enloe said of his team's performance, dating back to the second day of the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters. "When we're focused and on our games, we can play like this all the time. These are building blocks for the rest of the season. I'm happy with where the guys' games are at and I'm happy with where they're at mentally."

The Mustangs dominated par 5's throughout the tournament, posting an average score of 4.38 on the course's longest holes. DeChambeau led the way, averaging 3.89 strokes on par 5's in the tournament.
Tournament-host Stanford took third place, with TCU taking fourth and UNLV and Oregon tying for fifth. Stanford's Maverick McNealy and UAB's Will Cannon tied for the individual title, with DeChambeau, UNLV's John Oda and Smotherman rounding out the top five.

Eight of the 24 teams in the tournament field entered the event ranked in the top 50 of the GolfStat rankings, including two top-10 teams in Oregon and USC.

SMU will hit the course for its next tournament at the Vanderbilt-hosted Mason Rudolph Championship on April 3-5.

[mrydel]

Whatever happened to the top recruits we had committed before we fired the coach? They indicated they would go elsewhere. Did we get them, or did they actually go elsewhere?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

We lost both of the top recruits.

Austin Connelly signed with Arkansas. Gordon Neale signed with Florida.

[mrydel]

Thanks

[gostangs]

i still think we could have massaged that a bit better. We need to learn how to work those situations a bit better to compete where we need to.

[smusic 00]

Our new facility should help, especially if it draws a major.

[smupony94]

No more freebies for recruits

[smusic 00]

Meanwhile Kraft is coming around.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kelly-kraf ... -golf.html

Awesome!

[buckwheat]

[quote="DanFreibergerForHeisman"]We lost both of the top recruits.

Austin Connelly signed with Arkansas. Gordon Neale signed with Florida.[/quote]

OUCH