The golf teams at Alabama and Auburn further solidified their place as two of the top programs in the country this past weekend. Auburn finished third overall and Alabama finished tied for seventh in the Ben Hogan Collegiate, held at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
Oklahoma, ranked eighth in the country, won the overall team championship with a score of 276-275-279 (10-under-par) across three rounds. Texas (-6) came in second, followed by Auburn (-4), North Carolina (+1), Arizona State (+11), Vanderbilt (+20), Stanford (+22), Alabama (+23), and Georgia Tech (+23).
“This was a great tournament and an incredible venue in Colonial Country Club,” said Alabama head golf coach Jay Seawell. “We knew that this year’s schedule was going to challenge our guys, and we did that with a purpose in order to identify things to work on and improve. I thought we did some things really well this week. I also thought we showed some signs of some immaturity, which this course can cause you to do. All those things are very fixable and it’s good to know what we have to work on.”
Jonathan Griz led the Crimson Tide for the second consecutive tournament, finishing tied for 19th overall with a 3-over par 213 (74-70-69), which included a team-tournament low score of 1-under par 69 on Tuesday. It marks Griz’s second top 20 finish of the year and 12th of his career.
Auburn, the top-ranked team in the country, shot 282-274-280 overall and was led by the outstanding play of senior Brendan Valdes and freshman Billy Davis, who finished Tuesday’s final round in second and tied for third place, respectively.
Valdes shot 69-66-69 (-6) to place runner-up to North Carolina’s David Ford who earned low medalist at 9-under. Over his three rounds, Valdes birdied 14 times and even made his first career ace on hole 13 during Round 2. With the performance, Valdes clinched the 19th top-10 outing of his collegiate career, passing J.M. Butler and Jovan Rebula (18) to set a new program record.
“We played some very good golf at times the past two days on a difficult course,” Auburn head coach Nick Clinard said. “We are continuing to learn about ourselves, and we will continue to get better with time. We have an excellent team and need to keep working on our plan.”
The three-day tournament was created as a tribute to Ben Hogan’s impressive golf career and record five championships in the Colonial National Invitational. Day 1 of the tournament included the College-Am Practice Round, Day 2 included 36 holes of stroke play competition, and Day 3 included 18 holes of stroke play competition and the crowning of team and individual champions. Each year, the tournament attracts elite college golf teams from around the country and future superstars of the game. Former participants include professionals Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth.
Auburn returns to team competition Oct. 20-22 at The Williams Cup hosted by Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, North Carolina, while Alabama will play in the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate from October 18-20 in Alpharetta, Georgia.
After an intense weekend of collegiate golf, Seawell summed up the competition thusly: “One thing they’ve all learned is the line between success and winning is really thin, especially when you are competing against some of the best teams in the nation.” TG
