This might have been what was supposed to happen all along, Texas winning the national championship.
The Longhorns were there in 2019 losing to Stanford in the finals at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas. One year later, a return trip to the finals, Texas beat just four teams in the 30-team field and left Scottsdale disappointed.
All signs pointed to this year leading to another run for the Longhorns. Ranked in the top five in the preseason polls, Texas had the personnel to win a championship. Three seniors – brothers Parker and Pierceson Coody and Cole Hammer – were as good as any senior class in college golf. All three were there as freshman in 2019 in that 3-2 loss to Stanford.
However, this year was not a conventional road to winning a national title.
A mid-season accident saw the Coody brothers each break their right arm while competing in a relay race after a workout in December. The injuries would result in Pierceson missing four events and Parker missing two.
Both would come back and ignite the Longhorns. Parker would come back in March and help the Longhorns to a third place at Southern Highlands and a second at Arizona’s N.I.T. Then with Pierceson back in the starting five, Texas would lap the field at the Haskins Award Invitational in early April.
When you win a tournament over a No. 2 ranked Oklahoma State team by 26 shots, you quickly realize the train is back on the track. The Longhorns would win the next week at the Western Intercollegiate and appeared ready for the postseason.
At the NCAA finals at Grayhawk, the course did its job this week in identifying the best. For the first time and maybe the last time we saw teams ranked Nos. 1-8 all advance to match play. From that point on, match play did what it does: block the top-ranked teams from victory.
Enter Texas.
By all means a top team in college golf, but arriving in Arizona a bit differently than the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt. The No. 6 ranked Longhorns would quietly find fourth place after 72 holes of stroke play.
The Longhorns would then defeat Oklahoma State in the opening round, knock off Vanderbilt in the semifinals and then beat the host school Arizona State in the final.
For the 12th time in the 13 years in NCAA match play era, the No. 1 seed did not win the championship in the men’s bracket.
But maybe, just maybe, match play did identify the best team. A team that could have the best team in college golf all season long. A team that found its groove at that right time and heads home as national champions.
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