The No. 2 ranked Auburn Tigers golf team continued their year-plus long run of dominance last weekend, ending the fall season by adding another trophy to this team’s ever growing resume. Led by sophomore sensation Jackson Koivun and seniors Carson Bacha and Ryan Eshlemen, the Tigers took down No. 11 Georgia Tech to claim the East Lake Cup Championship on Wednesday.
Auburn’s path to another championship was led by the same cast of characters that have provided pivotal moments on the links over the last two seasons for the Tigers. Senior Carson Bacha was the bright spot in stroke play, leading all Tigers, and finishing second among all golfers, with a 5-under-par to open the tournament. Jackson Koivun and senior Brendan Valdes weren’t quite as impressive as Bacha, but they did both shoot under par to help Auburn finish second (-7) in stroke play, setting up a matchup with the team they took down in the National Championship, Florida State, in the semi final round.
Valdes, along with seniors Ryan Eshleman and Josiah Gilbert, carried the Tigers from there, winning their respective match ups to help Auburn defeat the Seminoles by the same score (3-2) they did in last year’s Championship. Eshleman continued his fantastic week with another win in the final against Georgia Tech’s Aidan Trann, while Koivun and Bacha provided wins to help Auburn earn another 3-2 result in the final round.
The Tigers have now finished among the top three teams in every tournament so far this season. It is extremely possible Auburn re-claims the No. 1 ranking in the Polls before Koivun and company return to play in February.
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