BRADENTON, Fla. – After knocking off No. 2 seed Vanderbilt by a 3.5-1.5 margin in the national quarterfinals earlier in the day, the No. 7-seeded LSU Tigers defeated No. 3 seed Georgia by the same scoreline in their semifinal match on Tuesday afternoon to advance to the NCAA Championship Match at the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.
The Tigers will play for their first NCAA Championship in 60 years when they tee off in Wednesday’s title decider against No. 5 seed USC beginning at 9:30 a.m. CT at Concession Golf Club. Golf Channel will again air live coverage from the course with Golf Central Pregame coverage beginning at 9 a.m. followed by the action in the NCAA Championship Match at 10:30 a.m.
The Trojans defeated No. 1 seed Illinois by an identical score of 3.5-1.5 in their national semifinal on Tuesday afternoon to join LSU in the NCAA Championship Match. While competing as the No. 5 seed in match play at this year’s tournament, USC opened with a comfortable 4.5-0.5 win over No. 4 seed Texas in the quarterfinal round.
LSU has won four national championships in their history, but not since their last victory way back in 1955. The Tigers were also crowned NCAA Champions in 1940, 1942 and 1947.
Senior All-American Ben Taylor scored the deciding point for the Tigers to send the team into the championship match as he defeated Georgia’s Zach Healy by a 2-up margin with a strong finish on the back nine.
Second-Team All-SEC performers Zach Wright and Eric Ricard both cruised to comfortable victories over their Bulldog rivals as Wright scored a decisive 7&6 win over Mookie Demoss and Ricard followed with his 4&3 win over Greyson Sigg to score the three points needed to win the match for the Tigers. Sophomore Brandon Pierce battled back from a three-hole deficit on the back nine to finish all square with Sepp Straka, while senior Stewart Jolly rounded out the semifinals with a narrow 2&1 defeat to Georgia’s Lee McCoy.
“I’m so proud of the guys,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead following his team’s semifinal victory. “This day was a long day. It takes a lot of focus and a lot of determination to play this much golf in these conditions, and you just have to kind of hang in there and keep playing. Our guys have had a nice year and have done some great things. They’ve worked really hard and are looking forward to tomorrow.
“USC has a great team. Not only do they have a great team, but they’re playing really well here too. We’re playing well, so I know we’re all looking forward to getting out there and getting after it.”
All eyes were on Taylor as he and Healy went to the back nine all square in their match that proved to be the decider in sending either the Tigers or Bulldogs to Wednesday’s championship finale. Taylor went 1-down in the match when he opened the back nine with a double bogey on the par-four 10th hole to hand the advantage over to Georgia.
But the Tiger All-American ground out the required result after he again squared the match with a par at the par-four 12th hole before taking his first lead of the afternoon by rolling in a clutch six-foot putt for par at the par-four 15th. After halving Nos. 16 and 17, Taylor fired a 6-iron from 196 yards to within three feet of the pin for a tap-in birdie and a 2-up victory for LSU’s clinching third point.
“The front nine was a massive grind. It was quite windy and really raining, so it was pretty tough to win holes and not give any away,” Taylor said of their front nine. “It cleared up on the back nine and we started hitting some proper golf shots. We had to go out and make birdies to win holes. The 17th was a good example because right when I made a birdie, (Zach Healy) came back and made birdie to extend the match.
“That was huge and got us to the final for the first time in school history,” Taylor added of his 6-iron into the 18th green. “It was 196 yards downwind with the pin back left, and I just fired it right in there at the pin.”
Wright’s match was never in doubt as he took an early 1-up lead with a par at the par-four second hole and never looked back while cruising to an easy victory in his match with DeMoss. He put together a run of four in a row as he went 4-up with a pars at the par-five third, par-three fourth and par-four fifth holes. Wright dropped his only hole of the day with a bogey at the par-five seventh hole as his lead was cut to 3-up.
But order was restored when Wright made par at the par-four eighth hole before closing out his match 7&6 with consecutive wins with a birdie at No. 10 and back-to-back pars at No. 11 and No. 12.
With his 7&6 win over DeMoss, Wright remained unbeaten at 4-0 in his four career matches in match play at the NCAA Championships. He also defeated Vanderbilt’s Carson Jacobs by a 4&2 margin in their quarterfinals match on Tuesday, while also earning wins over UCLA’s Matt Pinizzotto (2&1) in the quarterfinal and Alabama’s Cory Whitsett (1-up) in the semifinal last spring.
Like Wright, Ricard never trailed in his match against Sigg as he was quickly 1-up thanks to a par at the par-four first hole before extending his lead to 4-up with just six holes to play with a birdie at No. 7, par at No. 9 and birdie at No. 12. After trading holes No. 13 and No. 14, Ricard closed out the match 4&3 when he drained a lengthy birdie putt at the par-four 15th hole.
“On this golf course, you have to be good off the tee and not make any silly mistakes to give a hole away. You have to make the other person beat you,” Taylor added. “That was my mindset. I was able to do that great on the back nine today. We’ll approach it the same way as we did today, same routing as we’ve had yesterday , the day before and really what we’ve done all year to get to the final.”
NCAA Championship Match Schedule
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
No. 7 LSU vs. No. 5 Southern California, 9:30 a.m. CT (live on Golf Channel at 10:30 a.m.)
9:30 a.m. CT – Brandon Pierce (LSU) vs. Rico Hoey (USC)
9:40 a.m. CT – Ben Taylor (LSU) vs. Bobby Gojuangco (USC)
9:50 a.m. CT – Zach Wright (LSU) vs. Sean Crocker (USC)
10 a.m. CT – Eric Ricard (LSU) vs. Jonah Texeira (USC)
10:10 a.m. CT – Stewart Jolly (LSU) vs. Eric Sugimoto (USC)
Via- Will Stafford, Associate SID