Leading by two strokes entering the final three holes of the Old Waverly Intercollegiate Championship, the Mississippi State Bulldogs were close to protecting their home course in their first home tournament ever.
But the University of Alabama-Birmingham came back to tie the score at the end of 18 holes, forcing a playoff.
In a sudden-death playoff, each team selects five players to participate, and the top four scores are recorded. Two players from one team compete with three players from the other team first, and then the remaining five players compete.
MSU head coach Clay Homan said he turned his focus to what would come next as this was the first time the team had played in a five-man playoff.
“Either way we had played pretty well. You just want a chance to win each and every tournament, and we had that,” Homan said. “I wanted to send our four and five man first to get two scores in and save the top three guys in case needed to be aggressive and make birdies.”
State won the coin toss and did just that. The No. 4 and 5 Bulldogs played against three Blazers before the top three Dogs teed off with the final two Blazers.
But MSU did not need birdies. UAB hit two bogeys (only one was recorded), and State finished at par, giving the Dogs a one-stroke win.
Junior golfer Chad Ramey said he was more excited than nervous to participate in his first playoff.
“I felt like we had a slight advantage since it was our home course and we play it every day,” Ramey said. “I feel really good abut starting off to a good pace with it, and winning the first time we hosted it, and I feel like we set a good pace for years to come here.”
State plans to make the Old Waverly Intercollegiate an annual tournament and is set to host it the same time next year.
Individually, Ramey led the Dogs with a sixth place finish, followed closely by fellow junior Axel Boasson, who tied for 10th. Both Ramey and Boasson have received SEC Player of the Week honors this season.
Homan said in addition to these two awards, junior Joe Sakulpolphaisan and senior Robi Calvesbert have been close to winning the honor this year.
“It’s a great accolade. It really just tells a lot about the depth of our team this year,” Homan said. “We feel like we have four guys who have proven they can be up around the lead in any given tournament, so it just shows you the depth of our program. It’s a great kind of feather in our cap to have Mississippi State be atop the SEC in Player of the Weeks.”
The No. 28 Bulldogs, whose four tournament wins this year tied the school record for event wins in a season, will now set their eyes on the SEC Championship at St. Simons Island, Ga., April 19 to 21.
Homan said preparing for a golf course like this poses a difficult task with a lot of wind and tighter greens, but the experience of Ramey, Boasson and Calvesbert, who have played there twice, will be an advantage.
“The key for us is trying to get the two guys that haven’t played there ready,” Homan said. “Other than that, it’s just going out and not putting too much extra pressure on ourselves to perform because we know this is the best competition we’ll see all year.”
MSU has secured a spot in Regionals May 16 to 18 and must place in the top five at Regionals to advance to Nationals May 28 to June 2.