Oregon State junior Spencer Tibbits opened the final round of the Bandon Dunes Championship with back-to-back birdies at Pacific Dunes. It started a charge that ended with an eight-shot Oregon State victory on Tuesday, the Beavers’ third team title of the season. Fans across the country saw those birdies on a tournament livestream and Golfstat posted them nearly instantly.
Oregon State head coach Jon Reehorn only knew about them because he got a text from his brother.
“Spencer stuffed it on the first hole,” the first text read.
Then the follow-up, “Spencer stuffed it on the next hole.”
The pull to Golfstat can be strong for a college coach in the heat of a final round. Inhale, exhale, refresh, repeat. If the results are so readily available, why not access them? Reehoorn didn’t succumb because he wanted to honor the message he was sending his players. In fact, he didn’t look at live scoring all week at Bandon Dunes until the 16th hole on Tuesday, but that’s not particularly unusual for Reehoorn. He hardly lives and dies by live scoring.
“I wanted the guys to be about the process so if I was asking them to do it,” he said, “I needed to do it, too.”
Bandon Dunes Championship: Team Leaderboard | Individual
At the end of the day, Reehoorn was proud of his players’ precision – particularly with irons in their hands – and mental toughness. Oregon State took a six-shot lead into the final day and gradually pulled away in the final round for an eight-shot victory at 11 under. Washington (3 under) and Oregon (2 over) were the next closest teams. UCLA junior Devon Bling won the individual title at 5 under.
The Bandon Dunes title is maybe the result of a new way of thinking in the Oregon State camp. The Beavers won twice in the fall, including at their home event. Expectations went up.
“I think it just kind of meant a little too much for us the first two events and even for myself,” Reehoorn said. “The last 10 days in practice, I really just tried to get the guys to focus on their process, understanding what makes them play their best golf and be about that.”
The Bandon Dunes victory could revive Oregon State’s season. Ranked No. 26 after the fall, Oregon State dropped to No. 45 after finishing 17th at the Amer Ari in Hawaii and T-11 at the Prestige. With postseason approaching, it will offer a big boost, anyway.
Reehoorn hand-picked his entire lineup for Bandon Dunes, which is something he’s never done in more than a decade coaching. It was another move designed to make his team less fixated on results.
In the fall, everyone qualifies. A top-20 finish typically exempts a player into the lineup for the next event. But Reehoorn remembers playing college golf (initially, as a walk-on) at Washington State and struggling with that concept.
“I was a horrible qualifier. Once I got in the lineup, I never really left the lineup and my coach trusted in me so he just always kept me in there. That’s kind of always stuck with me.”
On the other hand, his mentor Matt Thurmond, the head coach at Arizona State (under whom Reehoorn coached during a stint as an assistant at Washington), decides every spot through qualifying. Reehoorn had tried to find a happy medium between those approaches.
“The reason we went with all picks was because I knew we needed to play well, but I also really felt like the guys needed to stop worrying about their score and just go play golf,” he said.
Every man delivered at Bandon. Three players finished in the top 5 and all five starters were in the top 34.
Freshman Jackson Lake, who struggled to break into the lineup in the fall, delivered a tie for 18th in just his second time out as a starter. Reehoorn thought Lake might pan out like he once did – get in the lineup and never leave. Lake struggled to an opening 77 at last month’s Prestige but backed it up with rounds of 66-69.
“Once he did that, he’s become a guy we can count on and that’s been huge for us.”
As for Tibbits, a major factor for the Beavers, most of Tuesday was spent with a camera close by. Reehoorn thinks he played better because of it. The reigning Oregon Amateur champion qualified for the U.S. Open last summer and missed the cut at Pebble Beach by one shot.
“I think Spencer has a game that he can play on really difficult golf courses.”
Oregon State, as a whole, can do difficult things, too.
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