Tag: Will Holcomb

With its star player back in the lineup, Sam Houston State is primed and ready for its NCAA Championship debut

Don’t be surprised if the Bearkats make a run this week.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Sam Houston State sat one stroke outside qualification for the NCAA Championship with just 18 holes left in the Stillwater Regional two weeks ago.

The Bearkats leader and star player, William Holcomb, was second on the individual leaderboard at the time, but was sitting in a hotel room by himself following the final-round action on his phone. The fifth-year senior was ruled out due to COVID-19 contact tracing, but that didn’t stop his teammates from rallying without him to punch their ticket to this week’s NCAA Championship, their first in program history.

“He told the guys, ‘Hey, give me a chance. Give me another chance,'” said head coach Brandt Kieschnick. “They gave him another chance to play.”

“I learned they’re a lot tougher than they seem sometimes and I guess, humblebrag, I made them tougher,” joked Holcomb after Thursday’s practice round at Grayhawk Golf Club. “It was awesome getting to see them go out and do that and getting updates from my dad and mom and wife. I was just sitting in the hotel, praying for them, pissed off. It was a roller coaster of emotions.”

“If I didn’t have COVID, I sure felt like I did after as emotionally spent as I was,” said Holcomb. “It was awesome to that, and it’s just a testament to coach and how he wants his program to be.”

Kieschnick and the ‘Kats have five pillars for the program: Humility, hard work, wisdom, discipline and team.

“We don’t need any maverick molecules. We’re all here for each other,” explained Kieschnick. “We play for each other.”

That’s not just coach speak, either. Those pillars are the foundation of Sam Houston’s program, and the belief in the message has manifested into one of the best stories of the year in college athletics.

“Part of our culture is being the same guy every day, and I felt like if everyone did that, we would be fine,” added Kieschnick. “So I just thought, ‘Hey, this is a really good opportunity to prove the things we talked about work and will get us through.’”

“You had to give those kids hope,” he continued. “You understand, I just told them that their best player isn’t playing. So you have to deal with that, and then you’ve got to give them some hope, ‘Hey, we can do this. This is how we’re gonna do it. And we can make one heck of a story.’”

But the story isn’t done yet. Far from.

Sam Houston’s confidence is at an all-time time entering Friday’s first round alongside Georgia Tech and Louisville, and why shouldn’t it be?

The Bearkats ended the season with a win at the Bayou City Collegiate, a second-place finish at their Bearkat Invitational and another win at the Southland Conference Championship before the Stillwater Regional.

“I look at some of their games, and I’m like, ‘How do I beat them every time?’ They’re really good players,” Holcomb said of his teammates. “I know every one of them can play at the highest level. So it’s just them believing it and getting to do it on the big stage.”

The stage is set, the lights are on and it’s Sam Houston’s time to shine.

[mm-video type=video id=01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr playlist_id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr/01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr-ead69a09dd172e0c6418c6d3e6681392.jpg]

Alex Fitzpatrick leads Jones Cup with opening 64 as many others try to make a Walker Cup case

Alex Fitzpatrick, a GB&I Walker Cup hopeful, leads the Jones Cup after a tournament-record 64 to open the event.

Expect Walker Cup selectors to be eyeing the Jones Cup, this week’s major amateur event at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, quite closely. That goes for the Great Britain & Ireland team just as much as for the U.S. team and on Friday, a GB&I player stole the show.

Alex Fitzpatrick, a Wake Forest junior from Sheffield, England, started on the back nine with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 at Ocean Forest and never let up. After five back-nine birdies, he added three more on the front for a tournament-record 8-under 64.

Interestingly, it didn’t give him much space at the top of the leaderboard. Five other men dove below 70 in the first round, including Georgia fifth-year senior Spencer Ralston, who is close on Fitzpatrick’s heels with a 7-under 65.

Scores: Jones Cup

Fitzpatrick already has been named to the R&A’s Walker Cup practice squad. He was part of the 2019 GB&I Walker Cup team that competed at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England two years ago. Fitzpatrick provided some stability for his side that week, going out as the lead man in every session. He played to a 2-2-0 record.

Tee times were moved up at Ocean Forest on Friday in anticipation of inclement weather moving through in the afternoon, and several players used the opportunity to score.

A year ago, Fitzpatrick, who is ranked No. 31 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished 31st at the Jones Cup. This week, he is coming off a fourth-play finish across the country at the Arizona Intercollegiate with his Wake Forest team.

Plenty of U.S. Walker Cup hopefuls are in the field, too. Put Ralston, winner of the 2019 Players Amateur and quarterfinalist at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, on that list.

A pair of twins, Maxwell Ford and David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, represent the junior contingent high up on the leaderboard. Maxwell Ford fired a 5-under 67 for solo third. His brother David, ranked No. 1 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, sits in solo sixth at 3 under.

William Holcomb V, a fifth-year senior at Sam Houston State, has made no bones about his mission this week: He wants to play on this year’s Walker Cup team. Holcomb got hot early, making birdie on his first three holes to shoot to the top of the leaderboard. Another birdie followed at No. 6, but Holcomb had some missteps, too – bogeys at Nos. 7 and 11, and a double-bogey at No. 17.

Holcomb finished with a 2-under 70, good for a share of seventh with Ford Clegg, Davis Thompson and Cole Hammer.

Of note concerning the latter two in that group: Hammer is coming off a win in December at the South Beach International Amateur and Thompson is defending champion this week. Thompson is also No. 2 in the WAGR and, if he can hold that position through this week’s event, would secure an automatic selection to the U.S. Walker Cup team next week.

[lawrence-related id=778086953,778085935]

Will Holcomb is teeing it up at the Jones Cup with one big goal in mind

Will Holcomb would like to close the amateur chapter of his golf career with a turn on the U.S. Walker Cup team this spring.

The driving range at Spring Creek Country Club, a nine-hole facility in Crockett, Texas, was practically at the end of Will Holcomb’s driveway as a kid. Holcomb can’t tell you how many times he found himself in an intense game at Spring Creek – often one in which he wouldn’t be allowed to use his driver, but would still have to give up strokes anyway. He was always welcome, and he was always challenged.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re 100 with one lung and one leg … or if you’re 14 or 15, just a good group of guys who play together and compete and anybody is invited,” Holcomb said. “There’s trash talk and I can’t tell you how many times somebody has said something while I was over a putt.”

It’s no wonder Holcomb craves that setting. As a fifth-year senior on the Sam Houston State roster, Holcomb recently found himself less than excited about going to golf practice as he helped a friend with a home project. But when he got to the golf course, he discovered head coach Brandt Kieschnick had planned an up-and-down competition.

Holcomb’s switch flipped – instant engagement.

“I love it – that’s what I want to do,” he said. “I want to just beat somebody. I don’t know where I got that from.”

The switch will flip again on Friday as Holcomb tees it up among the world’s best amateurs at the Jones Cup, a 54-hole event at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia. The objective is simple: Holcomb wants to play his way onto the U.S. Walker Cup team.

No one else like him

As Kieschnick likes to say, there’s a Navy SEAL-style discipline to the way Holcomb goes about business, and the killer instinct figures in. Holcomb thinks he’s such a good match-play player because he hates to lose more than he likes to win.

“He wants to win more than anyone out there,” Kieschnick said.

Discipline is maybe the unseen layer to Holcomb’s success – or at the least the one that gets overlooked. Holcomb is a quick talker and a cut-up, and those qualities come through first. Personality was arguably the biggest takeaway from Holcomb’s break-out performance at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, when he played his way to the semifinals after entering the week ranked No. 328 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

“He proved to himself that his good golf is as good as anybody’s good golf in the country,” Kieshnick said of that week. “He’s continued to prove that.”

Will Holcomb and Brandt Kieschnick
Will Holcomb with Sam Houston State coach Brandt Kieschnick. (Photo: Sam Houston State Athletics)

Kieschnick saw a kid with the whole package on the recruiting trail in the summer of 2015. Sam Houston State had finished the previous season as a top-50 team in the nation, and Kieschnick really wanted the fast-talking player from Crockett with serious game. Keischnick secured the commitment over dinner at the Holcomb family’s table.

There are no boring moments with Holcomb on the roster.

“He would hit shots – he’d be trying to hook this 3-iron, he’d yell hook and he would spin on his feet three three times round for that ball to hook,” Kieschnick said. “That’s how much he talked to the ball. He’s spinning his body three full circles for that thing to hook.”

“When he hits a shot and he gets a good bounce he says, ‘The good lord takes care of the needy boy,” and he just keeps going.”

The Holcomb file is equal parts one-liners and statistics. It speaks of faith and character. Holcomb has steadily improved on the golf course because of a single-minded commitment, but Keischnick also remembers Holcomb coming to his office the summer after his freshman year to talk about proposing to his girlfriend. Holcomb and Graycie were ultimately married in August. Holcomb broke his foot at the wedding, but told his coach he’d play through it – and did.

“He played the whole semester in a boot, was our No. 1 player, almost won a couple times,” Kieschnick said. “… It was just the most amazing thing you ever saw.”

One box left to check

With a transition approaching, Holcomb would like to close this chapter as a Walker Cupper.

“I wouldn’t have gone to the South Beach (International Amateur) and I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Walker Cup,” Holcomb said flatly. “I’ll get to play plenty of golf in this life, I didn’t really necessarily have to play any more.”

Realistically, Holcomb, as a U.S. Amateur semifinalist, was one match away from serious consideration for the last U.S. Walker Cup team. Ultimately, however, it took two more years and a head-turning stroke-play performance at the inaugural Maridoe Amateur in December to lift him into the conversation for the squad that will compete at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, on May 8-9.

“I’ve wanted to be on the team,” said Holcomb. “I want to play against the Europeans. I want to compete in match play with the best amateurs in the country and so I’ve always wanted to play it.”

Only one position on the 10-man team is spoken for – it went to Tyler Strafaci as winner of the 2020 U.S. Amateur. The USGA’s International Team Selection Committee will select three more players (the top three players in the WAGR) at the conclusion of the Jones Cup. Holcomb currently is ranked No. 71.

Will Holcomb, Maridoe Amateur medalist
Will Holcomb with his trophy as Maridoe Amateur medalist.

It’s safe to assume the winner of the Jones Cup, if he is American, will get serious consideration. Holcomb knows what he has to do.

A 16-man practice squad invited was selected the week before Holcomb’s run at the Maridoe Amateur or he would conceivably have been in that elite group. After he wrapped up the stroke-play medal, Holcomb was introduced to Walker Cup captain Nathanial Crosby. He relished the face time.

“It’s kind of like, you’re not going to want to go on a date with somebody unless you’ve probably met them, even if everybody says great things about them, you don’t know them,” Holcomb reasoned.

The Maridoe medal amounted to a major feather in Holcomb’s cap. It goes along with a runner-up at the North & South Amateur, the Trinity Forest Amateur title and a top-10 finish at the Azalea Invitational.

“He truly believes he’s one of the best in the country and he’s not afraid to play anybody,” Kieschnick said. “He definitely respects his competition, he knows he has to play well. He wants the moment and he’s kind of the guy who wants the ball. I think the bigger the scenario, the better he is.”

This moment is big, and as he always does before major amateur events, Holcomb has spent three days at Ocean Forest getting lines and committing to spots. He’s already noted the small greens there, which will work in his favor. After all, some of his crowning achievements have come at Pinehurst No. 2, where he deftly navigated tricky green complexes. That’s not to say it’s the only place he’s a factor.

As Holcomb noted, “Cup’s the same width at Pinehurst as it is here, I think.”

[lawrence-related id=778078862,778078617,777998305]

Maridoe Amateur bracket down to eight, including medalist and a USGA champion

Medalist Will Holcomb and Sunnehanna Amateur champion Preston Summerhays will face off at the top of the Maridoe Amateur bracket Saturday.

Five days and six rounds into the Maridoe Amateur, the quarterfinals are set. Half of the remaining field was seeded inside the top 10, and that includes Will Holcomb.

The Sam Houston State fifth-year senior is channeling some of his Pinehurst magic on this bracket. Twice in the past year and a half, Holcomb played his way deep into match play at that resort’s famed No. 2 course – at the 2019 U.S. Amateur (semifinals) and the 2020 North & South (finals).

On Friday at Maridoe Golf Club, Holcomb got past Coastal Carolina’s Zack Taylor in the morning but needed an extra hole to do it. He then defeated Oklahoma’s Logan McAllister by a 4-and-3 margin in the afternoon. It doesn’t get any easier from here. Holcomb will face Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior champion, in the quarterfinals. Summerhays also won the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur over the summer.

Summerhays, a Class of 2021 player bound for Arizona State next fall, dispatched two college players in Oklahoma’s Patrick Welch and SMU’s McClure Meissner, the latter having the distinction of winning the Southern Amateur at Maridoe over the summer.

Down the bracket, No. 45 seed Benjamin Shipp, who won the South Beach International Amateur to end 2019 continues a gritty run that included victories over Santa Clara’s Matthew McCarty and SMU’s Noah Goodwin on Friday. Now he faces Christopher Gotterup, who had a similarly tough road. Gotterup, a Rutgers senior, barely got past stroke-play star Frankie Capan, of Florida Gulf Coast, on Friday afternoon.

Sam Choi, the New Mexico player, and Ryan Grider, a Baylor junior who won the 2019 Texas Amateur, will meet on the bottom of the bracket. The winner of that match will face the winner of a showdown between Luke Potter, a high school junior verbally committed to Arizona State, and Jonathan Brightwell, a fifth-year senior at Oklahoma who got past U.S. Amateur medalist Wilson Furr and Arizona State’s David Puig on Friday.

After a double-round day of matches on Saturday, two finalists will play a 36-hole final on Sunday to determine a champion.

[lawrence-related id=778078862,778078617,778078461,778078363]

Medalist Will Holcomb survives and advances at Maridoe; all-Texas battle on tap

The medalist survived in the first round of match play at the Maridoe Amateur, and a grueling week in North Texas continues.

The medalist survived in the first round of match play at the Maridoe Amateur, and a grueling week in North Texas continues.

Twenty-four hours after Will Holcomb earned medalist honors at the inaugural event at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, he eeked out a close victory over Noah Woolsey. Holcomb, a fifth-year senior at Sam Houston State, finished 54 holes at 2 over (the best score by three shots) to claim the No. 1 seed. On Thursday morning, Woolsey, a senior at Washington, was among six players who had to come back and play off for two remaining spots in the bracket. He took the No. 64 seed while Devon Bling took the No. 63 spot.

Neither advanced.

Holcomb is notoriously tough in match play, having made it to the semifinals at the 2019 U.S. Amateur and the finals at the 2020 North & South Amateur. But Maridoe is a different animal.

Scores: Maridoe Amateur

After claiming medalist honors on Wednesday, Holcomb said the key would be to take it one match at a time. If that’s the case, one down and five to go.

Holcomb was 2 down to Woolsey by the fifth hole, squared it by the time the match reached the back nine, and narrowly outlasted Woolsey after he won the par-3 15th with a double to Woolsey’s triple and the two tied the final three holes.

Holcomb faces Zack Taylor, a fifth-year senior at Coastal Carolina, in the next match.

Down the bracket, Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior champ, outlasted USC freshman Shane Ffrench, 4 and 3. Below that, Michael Thorbjornsen, who won the 2018 U.S. Junior, and McClure Meissner, who won the Southern Amateur (at Maridoe, no less), both advanced and will meet in the next round.

SMU’s Noah Goodwin, a winner at the Maridoe Collegiate earlier this fall, knocked off Arkansas’ Julian Perico. N.C. State senior Benjamin Shipp, the South Beach International Amateur winner a year ago, went an extra hole in defeating Oklahoma fifth-year senior Garret Reband.

Frankie Capan, who led stroke play much of the week, defeated Matthew Sharpstene, a semifinalist at this year’s U.S. Amateur. He now faces Segundo Oliva Pinto, the Arkansas player who famously bowed out of the U.S. Amateur because of caddie error.

Notably, Texas star Cole Hammer failed to advance, falling at the hand of Arizona State’s Cameron Sisk, though his teammates Parker Coody and Travis Vick both did. Now they meet in the next round.

On the bottom of the bracket, Jonathan Brightwell, who authored a brilliant 69 in the second round (the only number under par that day), defeated Stanford freshman Karl Vilips and now gets Wilson Furr, the U.S. Amateur medalist, in the next round.

[lawrence-related id=778078617,778078461,778078363]

Maridoe Amateur medalist Will Holcomb ready to tackle match play

Will Holcomb has an impressive resume when it comes to head-to-head golf. He’ll take the No. 1 seed into Maridoe Amateur match play.

It isn’t all that unusual for a Tour player to avoid venues that don’t seem to suit his game. After missing the 36-hole cut at the Southern Amateur in July, Will Holcomb decided to take that approach with Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.

As it turns out, the seeds were planted for this week’s Maridoe Amateur during the week of the Southern. Holcomb later received an invitation and found himself having to go back on his plan.

“I found out it was match play and I love match play,” he said.

Holcomb finished a brutal 54 holes at Maridoe with rounds of 73-76-69, good for medalist honors at 2 over and a navy cashmere sweater emblazoned with the Maridoe patch to commemorate that. He noted that his wife Graycie, who was on her way to Carrollton to watch the match-play portion of the tournament, might be a bit angry with him.

“She says the No. 1 seed never wins,” Holcomb noted.

Will Holcomb, Maridoe Amateur medalist
Will Holcomb, Maridoe Amateur medalist

Standing off the 18th green waiting for his medalist photo opp, Holcomb was at a bit of a loss for words at the accomplishment. In a tough field full of the country’s best-ranked amateurs (Holcomb checks in at No. 73 in the World Amateur Ranking), the player from Crockett, Texas, rose to the top.

Scores: Maridoe Amateur

“It’s every bit as hard as any golf you want on a calm, sunny day,” Holcomb said of playing Maridoe in this week’s cold and windy conditions. “The first day was 35 degrees and freezing cold. That wasn’t easy. Yesterday was a little better. Ever since it warmed up, I’ve been kind of warming up myself.”

Holcomb is perhaps most well-known for his deep runs in match play at Pinehurst No. 2. He was a U.S. Amateur semifinalist in 2019 and finished runner-up to Tyler Strafaci, the eventual 2020 U.S. Amateur winner, at the North & South Amateur earlier this year.

It bodes well for him that six rounds of match play are to follow – just like a USGA championship.

“Just keep doing what I know how to do in match play and just fight – that’s really what I love doing,” Holcomb said of his match-play mindset. “I don’t play golf because it’s fun, I play golf because I want to win. When you get to play golf in the purest form, like one-on-one basketball, that’s really fun.”

Holcomb, a self-described “corona year senior” at Sam Houston State, can banter on the course as well as anyone. He marks his ball with a smiley face with the tongue sticking out in homage to a high school golf buddy who used to make that face when he’d drop a putt on Holcomb in a friendly match. He’s walking the course this week with caddie Marcus Jones, Maridoe member who works for College Golf Fellowship.

Holcomb’s final-round 69 on Wednesday helped him overtake 36-hole co-leaders Leo Oyo, who ultimately got the No. 2 seed, and Frankie Capan, who landed the No. 12 seed.

Seemingly everyone in this field has a Maridoe war story to tell, particularly as the North Texas wind howls and temperatures hover near 40 degrees.

Capan, a past U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champ who plays for Florida Gulf Coast, had two-time Korn Ferry Tour winner Davis Riley on his bag on Wednesday. Riley has played Maridoe frequently and helped Capan with some local knowledge before the event.

Julian Perico, an Arkansas junior, said Maridoe doled out plenty of punches. Perico snuck into match play as the No. 61 seed, calling Maridoe the hardest course he’s played. That’s from a player whose home course at college is Blessings Golf Club, a notoriously difficult, hilly layout.

“If I had to compare Maridoe to Blessings, this one is way tighter, the greens are way harder to hit, it’s way more penal off the tee, the greens are way harder to put on. It’s also faster, firmer and the wind feels 20 mph harder,” he said.

Perico was paying close attention to the leaderboard on Wednesday afternoon – excitedly shouting to another player at one point during his post-round interview when he learned he was safely on the bracket. He’ll face No. 4 seed Noah Goodwin, an SMU player who won a college event at Maridoe this fall, in the first round.

Thursday can’t be as adventurous as Perico’s previous 24 hours. Perico didn’t finish his second round, but realized once he left the golf course he had forgotten about a project and an essay due on Wednesday. He spent most of the night on the project, which was for an entomology class he’s taking.

He went to bed at midnight and woke up at 5:30 a.m., to finish the final three holes of his second round. Two hours later, he was off for his third round.

He’s used to balancing golf and schoolwork, he said, but not firing tournament rounds in the 80s.

“I think it’s so cool we get to play three rounds. At least you get to stay three days out here,” he said when asked about the format. “…I would have been done by a long shot. They gave me a chance and I took advantage of it.”

The bracket had only two holes in it on Wednesday night as a playoff was still needed to determine the Nos. 63 and 64 seeds.

Let match play begin.

[lawrence-related id=778078461,778078363,778054524]