FEATURE – One Last Shot

Golf is a cruel sport. The game changes with each address of the ball as players attempt to temporarily master a task that they could never truly perfect. Playing golf as part of a team adds its own set of challenges, including forcing each player to bring his best to balance out a teammate’s mistake or shortcomings.

The Texas men’s golf team — a group that epitomizes the definition of balance and success — made few mistakes throughout the 2012 season. Ranked No. 1 going into the NCAA Tournament, each player overcame the pressure and performed to their full potential during the tournament.

And then senior Dylan Frittelli stepped up to the final hole.

He had one last shot.

One last shot to win the title. One last shot of his collegiate career.

The championship came down to Frittelli and Alabama’s Cory Whitsett, a Houstonian and one of the most accomplished junior players in the [s2If current_user_is(s2member_level2)] history of the Lone Star State. Whitsett birdied the par-5 17^th hole to tie the match, sending the tournament to a final, decisive hole — Riviera Country Club’s famous 475-yard, uphill 18^th.

Frittelli’s approach rested 30 feet right of the hole. Whitsett was left of the narrow green on his second shot and whiffed on his nearly impossible chip from the kakuyu grass on his third. Then Whitsett almost holed his second chip, but the miss left the door open for Frittelli.

“I was sure [Whitsett] was going to make the chip,” Frittelli says. “To get my mind right, I pretended it went in. I wanted to make the putt no matter what. When I saw him miss, it made it a little easier on me, but I still wanted to put it in.”

When Frittelli’s ball disappeared into the hole, people standing in the halls of the University of Texas Golf Club to the far-flung towns in Finland, Venezuela and South Africa could hear the outpouring of emotion. “It still seems surreal,” freshman Jordan Spieth — who later in the monthn tied for 21st overall in the U.S. Open, finishing as the low amateur  — says.

The Longhorns’ 3-2 match victory over Alabama at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. erased 40 years of frustration. The championship marks the team’s first national title since back-to-back wins in 1971-72, headed by eventual World Golf Hall of Famers Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw.

But the victory, and Texas’ season as a whole, was determined by much more than just a birdie on one of the game’s toughest finishing holes.

Golfweek ranked Frittelli and Spieth as the No. 1 and 2 players in the nation throughout the season. The two shouldered most of the limelight as the Longhorns strived for the championship. However, junior Cody Gribble, sophomore Toni Hakula and junior Julio Vegas all won key matches at crucial times. Each of these athletes played an essential role in Texas’ win.

Vegas, the brother of PGA player and former Longhorn Jhonattan Vegas, made three consecutive birdies on the final three holes in his match against Oregon during the semifinals. His performance propelled the Longhorns into the final match. Gribble — a lefty who possesses a deft short game — won all three of his matches in the tournament. Hakula went 2-1 and trailed just six holes in his three matches, positioning himself as the lead player each day (Alabama’s Bobby Wyatt pitched one in on the final hole to beat him).

The title marks Texas’ eighth victory of the season, and headlines three runner-up finishes. The Longhorns came from down 2-0 in the overall match, roaring past the stunned Crimson Tide and right into history. “I heard from [Texas football coach] Mack Brown the night before the championship match,” coach John Fields says. “Coach Brown didn’t win his last one against Alabama, so he told us to go win.”

Even Hollywood screenwriters couldn’t pen a story this dramatic. Alabama’s Wyatt eagled No. 17 and then birdied the 18^th to beat Hakula and give the Tide an early point. Then Alabama’s Hunter Hamrick nabbed his own win, closing down Vegas, 6 & 5, with a par on No. 13. Gribble spurred the comeback, never trailing in his match against Alabama’s Scott Strohmeyer on the way to a 2 & 1 win that ended with Gribble’s birdie on No. 17.

The stage was set for the prime time players. In a marquee matchup between the nation’s two best freshmen golfers, Spieth thoroughly handled the Tide’s Justin Thomas and closed out the match when he holed a 4-iron from 210 yards on the 15^th hole.

Then everything came down to Frittelli and Whitsett. And the men’s golf team finished where they started the 2011-12 season — as No. 1.

“I knew it was going in about two from the hole,” Frittelli says. After he rolled in the winner, he ran back toward the fairway in delirious celebration until he was corralled and dog piled by his teammates.

Following the celebration, Frittelli sought out Whitsett, who waited on the far side of the green. Whitsett was in tears. When he shook hands with Frittelli, Whitsett held out his other hand. “You might want this,” he said. It was Frittelli’s ball.

“This [championship] is validation for all the hard work,” Frittelli says. “It’s also for Coach Fields. If I would’ve left here after four years without a national championship, I wouldn’t have done him justice.”

Fields missed the celebration on the 18^th green. After watching Gribble win his match on No. 17, he was midway up the uphill 18^th fairway when the area around the putting surface exploded with sound. “I heard all of our fans,” Fields recalls. “All of a sudden, in that brief moment, I knew we were national champions.” [/s2If]
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