Texas A&M Men's Golf

Aggies set for 2014 NCAA men's golf national championship

By Cavender Neutze

May 22, 2014

5,500

The 2014 Men’s Golf National Championship will take place May 23rd through the 28th at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kansas. This year will mark the 7th consecutive appearance for the Texas A&M Men’s golf team. During this stretch the team has experienced a run of success that is unmatched anywhere in the nation outside of College Station. Starting with the 2008 tournament, the team has collected top 15 finishes each and every year, the only team to accomplish that level of consistency.

They haven’t settled for finishing in the top half of the field however, taking home the hardware in 2009 with Bronson Burgoon’s final hole tap in birdie giving the team their first national title. Reserving a tee time at this years event will give the Aggies a golden opportunity to continue their run of success on the sports biggest stage, but before the first ball leaves the clubface, there are five things you need to know heading into the weekend.

10 teams from the Southeastern Conference have qualified for the chance to go home as national champions.

1. The Aggies will face competition as strong top to bottom as it has ever been. With 22 of the top 25 teams in the nation advancing through regional tournaments, the road to the Elite Eight and the match play quarterfinals will not be a smoothly paved one. The main competition may very well come from our own backyard in the form of the Alabama Crimson Tide. With seven wins this season, including a 16 shot win at the SEC Championship and a 22 shot victory at the Auburn regional, Alabama will be the popular choice to be the last team standing at Prairie Dunes.

These two conference foes won’t be alone in their quest, as 10 teams from the Southeastern Conference have qualified for the chance to go home as national champions. After tying for the Aggie Invitational title last month with LSU, one of the SEC’s ten teams, and finishing in a 2 way tie for 9th at the SEC Championship, the Ags know better than most what lies ahead. Looking outside of our conference, the team that will draw more eyes than any other will be Georgia Tech. The second ranked team in the nation will be coming off a dominant performance in the Raleigh regional, where in route to a seventeen-stroke victory, they shot their lowest 54 hole score in program history.

Georgia Tech is another program A&M has had a first hand look at as the Raleigh regional also served as the Aggies avenue to nationals. Other teams with historic success reside within the top 5 in the rankings, Oklahoma State and their ten national titles are always a contender that has to be taken seriously, as is Stanford who seems to produce PGA tour players with every recruiting class.

2. In 2009 the National Championship changed formats from stroke play to a mixture of stroke and match play, the latter occurring over the final two days. This current structure has given college golf its own Elite Eight and Final Four, which brings with it a sense of excitement and unpredictability that translates year after year. After three rounds of stroke play in which the lowest four of the teams five scores are taken each day, the field is narrowed from 30 teams to the low eight, with the low 40 individuals and ties, for the first time, playing a fourth round to determine an individual national champion.

Texas A&M Media Relations A&M head golf coach J.T. Higgins hopes to bring home his second national title in five seasons.

On the fifth day of competition, the teams will be seeded with the lowest scoring team playing the highest scoring. If two teams within the top eight have the same three day total, the fifth mans score will act as the tiebreaker. Once teams reach the match play section of the competition, every player will compete against the other teams player of their same seeding. Number one players pitted against each other and on down the list to the number fives. Every player’s match counts the same and three of the five matches must be won in order to advance.

While golf is the same game no matter the format, match play has the ability to level the playing field more than a stroke play championship can. One hot player can only win one match, whereas in a stroke play tournament a great round by one player can help separate the team and will count towards the other days scores, but not here. Beyond the individuality of each match, the beauty of match play is the individuality of each hole. The score on each hole is irrelevant as long as it is one less than your competitors, this creates the opportunity for golfers to recover from a bad start or a bad hole easier than they could otherwise.

That is good news for teams that do not churn out 65s every round. In match play, a 65 can lose to a 75 since it all depends on how the scores on each hole match up. This format has the potential to produce incredible drama throughout the tournament and gives each round a true fresh start. If you want to win the national championship you have to play well every day.

3. The national championship will have more coverage than ever before. For the first time in 14 years the tournament will be broadcasted live on television, with Golf Channel devoting nine hours of live coverage over three days to the event. Along with covering the final day of stroke play and the three rounds of match play, Golf Channel will bring viewers pre and post round analysis and interviews much like they do at major championships on the PGA Tour.

This gives programs the opportunity to showcase their talent on a global scale like never before, while also allowing players the opportunity to get comfortable having their rounds televised, something that will be a major factor as they try to translate their games onto the professional circuit. This unprecedented coverage is also a major attraction for courses hoping to draw eyes and attention to what they have to offer. Much like young players are showcasing their ability to be tour stars, courses will be hoping to show how well they handle one of the games premier amateur events.

For the first time in 14 years the tournament will be broadcasted live on television, with Golf Channel devoting nine hours of live coverage over three days to the event.

With match play essentially resetting each team at the start of the rounds, this event promises to present a compelling product to viewers. No one team can run away from the field and take with it the drama necessary to attract a large audience to their television screens. One of the main detractors of golf on television, usually from those who don’t follow the game closely, is that it is too slow and boring to watch. This championship, this format, and this coverage will have the opportunity and ability to change that.

4. Prairie Dunes is not the course you expect to see in the middle of the country. In 1935, Perry Maxwell, who had a hand in redesigning Augusta National and Pine Valley, two courses that have spent the last few decades alternating time atop the list of best courses in the world, was brought in to build a masterpiece and that is exactly what he did. The course weaves through rolling hills and native grass, all the while presenting a test of golf fit for a spot on the Open Championship rotation.

Unlike many of today’s courses that are made tough by their gargantuan length, Prairie Dunes, at just under 6,800 yards, commands you to be accurate and patient if you want to be successful. The course not only resembles those seen on the coasts of Scotland or Ireland, but it plays like one too. The wind can gust up to 40 mph and presents 20 to 25 mph winds on a daily basis. That element of mother nature, mixed with the waist high grass surrounding each fairway, presents a unique challenge not seen on the college or professional circuit every week.

This style of golf and match play are incredibly well suited for each other, a lost ball or three is a given, and so is the fact that those wont take from you an opportunity to win your match. This course will give viewers a glance at how beautiful and how tough this game can be, guaranteed. Just like a US Open or Open Championship, there will be something for everyone, if you like to see the most talented players in the game shiver over an approach shot into a howling cross wind, you’ll get it. You will also see a team of young men earn a title by conquering a demanding layout in what is sure to be exacting and infuriating conditions.

Over the past year, each member of this team has taken it upon themselves to do everything they can to eliminate that one shot that separated them from the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of college golf last season.

5. This Aggie team is extremely confident in their ability and are determined to go all the way. After the heartbreak of originally clinching a spot in match play, then getting hit with a penalty and subsequently having to go into a four for three playoff and coming out on the wrong side of it a year ago, this team is hungry for redemption. Each of the players have a chip on their shoulder that they feel will help propel them to greatness.

That mentality paired with the belief in their own ability and the ability of those around them has this team exactly where they want to be. Over the past year, each and every member of this team has taken it upon themselves to do everything they can to eliminate that one shot that separated them from the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of college golf. With their new state of the art short game facility that rivals any in the nation, they have the resources and the desire to accomplish everything they set out to at the start of the year.

Over the course of three days last year it was but a single stroke in hundreds that stopped this team from moving on. If they can get on the other side of that wall and reach the world of college golf’s Elite Eight, anything can happen. This team has the ability both mentally and physically to walk away from this years tournament as champions.

They have put in the work throughout the entire season and will continue to do so until May 23rd rolls aroun. All we can do is wait and see how everything unfolds amongst the hills and wind of Hutchinson, Kansas’s sternest test.

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Tags: J.T. Higgins, Men's Golf, Texas A&M, 2014