Mississippi State men’s golf head coach Clay Homan said coming into the Magnolia Cup match that his squad’s experience would be an asset to its members.It seemed that experience did give the team an advantage as it downed Ole Miss Friday in the Magnolia Cup at the Old Waverly golf course for the second straight year and once again brought the Cameron Cup back to Mississippi State.
The Bulldog team fired a 15-under par with a round of 273 while the Rebels posted a 9-under par for the round with a score of 279.
Homan said the team’s performance ranked alongside the best he’d seen from the university.
“I was pleased with our team’s play today,” Homan said. “I think it might have been one of the single lowest scores for one round in the history of our program.”
To go along with one of the lowest team scores in history, the Mississippi State team also had an historic individual performance.
Mississippi State golfer Noah Goldman led the team and all individual golfers in the match with a score of 66 or six-under par for the course.
Goldman’s total score was only one stroke over the Magnolia Cup record of 65, which was posted by former Bulldog Michael Knight in 2005.
Goldman’s near-record performance was noticed by Homan, who was impressed by the junior’s play.
“He did really well out there,” Homan said. “It was the second year in a row for him to pick up the individual win, so I was happy for him.”
The Cameron Cup win and the superb play by the Bulldog golfers gave Homan a good feel of how the squad can perform.
“Since most of the guys play the course regularly, there weren’t too many mistakes,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep it up and bring this good play every time. This win gives us confidence, and we’ll see where it takes us.