Men’s golf wins fourth consecutive Big 12 title

By Steve Lansdale

TRINITY, Texas — For the fourth time in as many years and 47^th time in program history, the University of Texas men’s golf team is the champion of its conference.

Head coach John Fields the strength of the opposition[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] in the Big 12 helped his team play at a level that allowed the Longhorns to claim another title.

“For us to do this four years in a row is super-special,” Fields said. “I don’t take lightly all the teams in the Big 12 that have all won college golf tournaments this year. They’re all really good. This golf course is really great. For us, it all adds up to just an honor to say we are Big 12 champions.”

Despite the respect Fields and his team said they feel toward the rest of the Big 12, the Longhorns basically lapped the field: Texas, the top-ranked team in the nation, shot a 14-under-par 273 in the fourth round; the finished the tournament with a four-round score of 1,138. Not only was UT the only team to finish the tournament under par, but the ’Horns beat runner-up Oklahoma State, which finished with a plus-12 score of 1,164 by 26 strokes.

Junior Beau Hossler finished the tournament at five under par after shooting 69 in the final round to tie with TCU’s Paul Barjon for second place among individual competitors with a four-round 283.

Despite sitting atop the national rankings, Hossler said that the Longhorns’ effort in the Big 12 championship might have been their best team effort of the season.

“It has been awesome, a good ride,” Hossler said. “Certainly, I’m really proud of the guys this year. Like the last couple of years, we were able to play really well at this tournament. It’s a really good conference. We have some stiff competition. Anytime you can be consistently beating those other teams, it’s good for the program. I’m proud of the guys. They’ve worked hard, and I’ve worked hard as well. Today was the first time we all played really well.”

Sophomore Doug Ghim was right behind Hossler in the individual standings, shooting 285 to tie him with Kansas State’s Jeremy Gandon for fourth place. Other UT golfers who finished among the top 10 individuals were Gavin Hall, who tied Oklahoma’s Grant Hirschman for sixth place with a two-under-par 286, and Scottie Scheffler, who shot an even-par 288.

Fields said he hopes the Longhorns’ performance was one that can serve as a springboard as their postseason continues.

“Today is something we’ve been looking for all year,” he said. “We want to play our best golf together. I don’t know if at any time this year we felt like we had a round like this where everyone played well. It says a lot about this team. We can take that as momentum heading into the regional and hopefully the national championship.”

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