USC Aiken started slow, but finished strong pulling away down the stretch to capture the 42nd NCAA Division II Men’s Golf National Championship. USCA finished at +39 for the four-day tournament, nine shots better than CSU Chico and 10 strokes in front on Barry University, giving the school its first National Championship of any kind.
The 72-hole championship was to be part of a new initiative by the NCAA to gain more notoriety for Division II. Thus the “Sports Festival” was born. The men’s golf venue was the 6,966-yard, par 72 Victoria Hills Golf Club in DeLand, Fla.
“This has been 14 years coming,” said Michael Carlisle, the five-time Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year. “We feel like we probably should have won it two or three times before this, but this is a hard goal to achieve and I’m just so happy for our players and those who came down here to support us.”
Competing in the Division II National Championship Tournament for the 10th time in their 13 years as an NCAA member, USCA had finished runner-up three times in the previous eight year (1995, 1996, 1999).
On day one, Columbus State was the surprise team taking the round one lead at three-over-par.
CSU Stanislaus was in second, four shots back at seven-over-par. West Florida was third at +7, while the Pacers found themselves tied for seventh with AASU, 13 shots back.
The Pacers had more success in Thursday’s second round by, along with Chico State and Barry, posting the only sub-300 team totals of the day. USCA’s 297 vaulted them four spots into third at the midway poll.
As round three drew to a close, drama was king on 18 James McGhee, Scott Brown, and Dane Burkhart all birdied the par five finishing hole to bring the Pacers from two shots back to making USCA the third round leader by one over Barry and two ahead of Chico State. Brown keyed the charge by birdying his final three holes.
Rainy conditions dominated much of Saturday afternoon’s final round proving the Pacers would have to show they could “mud” their way to the win.
Led by Burkhart and Brown’s 73’s, the Pacers’ 298 was the best of the day, easily besting Chico State’s 305 and Barry’s 307 to claim the nine-stroke victory and the first national championship of any kind in the school’s history.
One impressive note to the victory regarding the weather is that the Pacers did it in all conditions, the windy, humid, afternoon heat of Central Florida, the cooler morning round with dew on the course, and lastly the rainy conditions of Saturday’s final round.
USCA did it with one senior, three sophomores, and one freshman.
“We were very fortunate today, you could play the same situation tomorrow and another team would win,” said Carlisle. “There are a lot of good, quality teams in the tournament and to be able to win this thing against such good teams just makes it all that much better.”
Brown led the Pacers on Saturday and finished at 295, or seven-over-par, to tie for fourth. Three birdies and four bogeys on the front side had the sophomore making the turn at one-over-par. After bogeying the par three 12th, Brown birdied the par four 17th to shoot even-par 36 on the back.
Burkhart also shot a 73 on Saturday to finish with a 296, or eight-over-par, for the tournament and tie with teammate Clint Smith for sixth place. Burkhart recorded one birdie and two bogeys on the front while shooting even-par 36 on the back side.
Smith started slow with a double bogey on one and back-to-back bogeys on six and seven to move to three-over-par entering the ninth. He birdied nine, bogeyed 10, and then rattled off seven-straight pars until his birdie on 18 in front of a huge gallery of onlookers capped his 75.
McGhee and senior Bryan Sangid each carded final round 77’s McGhee finished with a 308 to tie for 44th, while Sangid closed out his collegiate career with a 312, tying for 62nd in the 102-player field.
JJ Jakovac of CSU Chico finished with a total of 287 to win the individual title.
