LSU Men’s Golf makes history with 2015 NCAA Championship

What a year for the LSU Tiger Golf Program! The road to even get to nationals was not an easy one, yet a year will go down as one of the greatest in the school’s golf history.

Yes, it was great to see the Tigers win their fifth national championship, their last one coming in 1955. Victory was secured when LSU senior All-American Ben Taylor scored the deciding point by sinking a nine foot par putt on the par-4 18th hole to claim a 1–up victory over USC’s Bobby Gojuangco at the Concession Club in Bradenton, FL.

Covington native Brandon Pierce and Zach Wright went undefeated in match play for LSU Coach Chuck Winstead, a former member of the LSU Golf Team in his 10th season at the helm. He has taken the Tigers to the national championships five out the last six seasons.

Along with being an excellent coach and instructor, Winstead understands the human side of college athletics. When Taylor was grinding away trying to win the championship, he was asked how were his nerves in this pressure packed match with so much riding on his outcome.

“Surprisingly not too bad, when I was preparing to hit my second shot into the 17th green, before I hit my shot, Coach (Winstead) asked me, “Are you having fun?” It was hard to say no because it was a lot of fun. I hit my four iron to within five feet of the hole and made my putt for eagle to bring the match to even.”

You can only imagine what an inexperienced coach would have said to a player who was one down with two remaining holes.

Today, the entire LSU Athletic Program now has 47 national championships with the latest credited to having fun and never quitting.

2014-15 LSU Golf Team
SEC Champions – NCAA Champions
Blake Caldwell Fr. Ponchatoula, La. (Ponchatoula HS)
Stewart Jolly Sr. Birmingham, Ala. (Mountain Brook HS)
Rhyne Jones So. Blowing Rock, N.C. (Christ School/Nevada)
Myles Lewis Sr. New Orleans, La. (Jesuit HS)
Brandon Pierce So. Covington, La. (St. Paul’s School)
Eric Ricard So. Shreveport, La. (Loyola College Prep)
Ben Taylor Sr. Leatherhead, England (Millfield School/Nova Southeastern)

The Road to the NCAA Championship – One for the History Books

LSU matched single-season mark from the 1959-60 team with five wins in a season and won the SEC Championship, their 16th but first since 1987 when the Tigers were led by sophomore David Toms. With nine holes remaining, LSU trailed three-time defending league champion Alabama by three strokes and five behind Vanderbilt. The Tigers played the last nine holes in one under par, surging by Alabama (10 over on the final nine) and Vanderbilt (5 over) to win by three strokes.

A stunning finish at the NCAA Regionals landed the Tigers a spot in the NCAAs. The regionals were held at Yale University where 14 teams were vying for five spots to go to the nationals. LSU came into regionals ranked seventh in the country and were seeded second at the regional, but going into the last round they were 11 strokes out of fifth place. Leaving it late again, the Tigers stepped up and fired a team tournament low of 12 under par to finish fifth, edging out Iowa and North Carolina State by a single stroke.

The top five teams from the six NCAA Regional Championships qualify to go to the NCAA Championship. First comes a 72 hole stroke play qualifier, and the low eight teams earn spots in the match play portion of the championship. LSU finished seventh, but ended up first among all.

NCAA Men’s Golf Championship Results
June 3, 2015

#7 LSU def. #5 Southern Cal, 4-1

Brandon Pierce (LSU) def. Rico Hoey (USC), 2&1
Ben Taylor (LSU) def. Bobby Gojuangco (USC), 1-UP
Zach Wright (LSU) def. Sean Crocker (USC), 3&2
Eric Ricard (LSU) def. Jonah Texeira (USC), 1-UP
Eric Sugimoto (USC) def. Stewart Jolly (LSU), 1-UP

NCAA Semifinal Results
June 2, 2015

#7 LSU def. #3 Georgia, 3.5-1.5
#5 Southern Cal def. #1 Illinois, 3.5-1.5

NCAA Quarterfinal Results
June 2, 2015

#7 LSU def. #2 Vanderbilt, 3.5-1.5
#3 Georgia def. #6 USF, 4-1
#1 Illinois def. #8 UCLA, 3-2
#5 Southern Cal def. #4 Texas, 4-1

NCAA Stroke Play Round 4 Results (Top 8 advanced to Match Play)
June 1, 2014

Team Scores (Par 1152)
1. Illinois 286-292-296-282 – 1155 +3; 2. Vanderbilt 301-284-287-285 – 1157 +5; T3. Georgia 288-293-286-291 – 1158 +6; T3. Texas 294-300-280-284 – 1158 +6; 5. Southern California 289-285-296-291 – 1161 +9; 6. South Florida 294-291-292-291 – 1168 +16; 7. LSU 292-289-290 -298 – 1169 +17; 8. UCLA 294-304-280-294 – 1172 +20; 9. Georgia Tech 293-295-290-297 – 1175 +23; 10. TCU 296-293-291-299 – 1179 +27; 11. Florida State 298-292-293-298 – 1181 +29; 12. Auburn 301-290-296-296 – 1183 +31; 13. South Carolina 301-298-288-300 – 1187 +35; 14. SMU 296-303-291-302 – 1192 +40; 15. San Diego State 290-299-298-306 – 1193 +41.

Top-20 Individuals (Par 288)
1. Bryson Dechambeau, SMU, 70-67-72-71 – 280 -8; 2. Cheng-Tsung Pan, Washington, 72-70-72-67 – 281 -7; T3. Thomas Detry, Illinois, 68-71-73-70 – 282 -6; T3. Hunter Stewart, Vanderbilt, 74-69-71-68 – 282 -6; 5. Paul Dunne, UAB, 72-69-69-73 – 283 -5; 6. Claudio Correa, South Florida, 68-75-69-72 – 284 -4; 7. Andrew Presley, TCU, 73-70-72-70 – 285 -3; T8. Doug Ghim, Texas, 72-73-70-71 – 286 -2; T8. Riley Davenport, Charlotte, 70-74-72-70 – 286 -2; 10. Beau Hossler, Texas, 72-75-69-71 – 287 -1; T11. Brandon Pierce, LSU, 71-71-73-73 – 288 E; T11. Zach Wright, LSU, 70-70-73-75 – 288 E; T11. Matthias Schwab, Vanderbilt, 75-71-73-69 – 288 E; T11. Zack Jaworski, Vanderbilt, 71-74-71-72 – 288 E; T11. Mookie DeMoss, Georgia, 71-74-70-73 – 288 E; T16. Jake Shuman, Duke, 69-78-71-71 – 289 +1; T16. Will Starke, South Carolina, 78-71-70-70 – 289 +1; T16. Zachary Olsen, Oklahoma State, 71-71-75-72 – 289 +1; T16. Sean Crocker, Southern California, 73-68-75-73 – 289 +1; T16. Zach Healy, Georgia, 70-72-70-77 – 289 +1; T16. Preston Valder, UCLA, 74-75-68-72 – 289 +1.

Teams Missing Top-15 Cut After Third Round of Stroke Play

t15.* Washington 301-294-295 — 890 (+26)
17. Texas Tech 304-305-282 — 891 (+27)
18. Virginia 300-294-299 — 893 (+29)
t19. Oklahoma State 298-294-304 — 896 (+32)
t19. UAB 308-292-296 — 896 (+32)
21. Stanford 310-297-292 — 899 (+35)
22. Charlotte 298-295-308 — 901 (+37)
23. Oregon 300-294-308 — 902 (+38)
t24. Arizona State 299-306-298 — 903 (+39)
t24. Duke 297-309-297 — 903 (+39)
t26. UNLV 302-294-310 — 906 (+42)
t26. Houston 301-312-293 — 906 (+42)
t28. Florida 293-309-308 — 910 (+46)
t28. Oklahoma 312-299-299 — 910 (+46)