THE MEN’S GOLF TEAM LOOKS TO CAPTURE A SECOND-CONSECUTIVE NATIONAL TITLE.
AFTER WINNING its first national championship since 1972 last season, the Texas golf team is trying to win another, repeating a trail blazed by the squads led by Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw.
Despite losing their top two players from the 2011-12 team, the Longhorns still have the team that can win it all again.
Buoyed by three returning stalwarts and spurred by freshman South African import Brandon Stone, Texas has stampeded through most of the 2012-13 season. The Longhorns claimed five victories during the regular season and finished in the top four in10 of its 11 tournaments.
The team won its own tournament — the hotly contested Morris Williams Invitational — for the third consecutive year. Yet unlike the national championship team, this year’s squad captured the…. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Big 12 Championship despite cold and windy conditions at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.
The win positioned the Longhorns for their first photo shoot in front of the lit UT Tower, with another photo opportunity on the near-horizon if the Longhorns can defend their title. Third-ranked Texas faces off against Alabama and California at the Capital City Club in Atlanta May 28 to June 2.
“It’s thrilling to have a team that’s won five times in any season,” head coach John Fields said. “We’re going into this last month with confidence, but we have tremendous respect for the game of golf and understand that there’s a finality about the postseason — if you play well you advance and if you don’t, you go home. There’s pressure on these guys, but we feel much better about going into the postseason with some momentum.”
Returning for the Longhorns is the backbone of the 2012 team — seniors Julio Vegas and Cody Gribble and junior Toni Hakula. Stone, Kramer Hickok, Johnathan Schnitzer and Will Griffin have augmented that core.
How good is Stone? The freshman garnered both the Big 12 Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards, becoming the fifth golfer in league history and second-straight Longhorn to tally both end-of-year honors.
Gribble and Hickok joined Stone on the All-Big 12 Team, while the conference named Fields as the league’s Coach of the Year. The honor marked Fields’ fourth time to receive the award while at Texas and the first time since 2004. Texas assistant coach Ryan Murphy even won kudos receiving the 2013 Jan Strickland Assistant Coach of the Year award.
BIG SHOES TO FILL
THE RESPONSIBILITY of upholding Texas’ continuing presence at the top of the national rankings has fallen on Stone, who’s been nothing short of sensational this season. Listed as the No. 2 collegiate golfer in the nation, Stone joins former Longhorns standouts David Gossett (1999) and Jordan Spieth (2012), as well as Oklahoma State players Rickie Fowler (2008) and Morgan Hoffmann, (2009) as the only individuals to tally both the Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Year honors.
Stone finished first in this year’s conference championship and was the only player in the field to finish even par at Prairie Dunes. He also won two additional tournaments during his rookie season. He was named a semifinalist for the 2013 Ben Hogan Award, an annual honor given to the top U.S. collegiate golfer.
No one player can replace Spieth or Dylan Frittelli and every team is different. But the fresh-faced and ultra-talented South African has certainly done his part.
“I didn’t have to pick up where those guys left off,” he said of Spieth and Frittelli. “I wanted to come in and try to contribute to the success of the team any way I could. I feel I’ve accomplished that. There are plenty of guys on the team that are capable of shooting low numbers.”
Stone is Texas’ fourth-consecutive Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and the seventh Longhorn selected for the award, joining Gossett (1999), Jason Hartwick (2001), Matt Rosenfeld (2003), Gribble (2010), Hakula (2011) and Spieth (2012).
“I don’t think there will be many teams like the one we had last year, but Stone has done a great job in trying to fill those shoes,” Gribble said. “I don’t know anyone else who could’ve done as well under those circumstances.”
Frittelli, in fact, is the one responsible for bringing Stone to Austin.
“Dylan was the connection,” Stone explained. “I always knew I was going to college — it was just a matter of where. Being from South Africa, I didn’t have the most in-depth knowledge of the college system in the United States and Dylan told me that Texas was an amazing place with nice people and great coaches, and that I’d have a good time.”
Since Stone arrived at Texas, he’s become a better player, even if that improvement hasn’t necessarily shown up in his scores.
“The level of confidence I’ve built up over the course of this season is substantial,” he said. “I was a decent amateur golfer back home and I wanted some international victories. I’ve made a huge move in the right direction.”
Stone gives full credit for his stellar season to the Texas coaching staff and teammates.
“They’re generous and helped me get settled,” he said. “Getting settled in during the first few weeks made it easy for me to focus on my schoolwork and my game which ultimately led to how I’ve been playing this season.”
COACHING STAFF LEADS THE WAY
THE RESPECT and affection bestowed upon the Longhorns by Fields and Murphy is profound. Stone credited Fields for giving each player what he needs to succeed — whether that means just talking or providing strategy around their game.
“He’s there for us without being overbearing, and to me, that’s what makes a great coach,” Stone said.
Fields has developed the team into a cohesive group. He picks up the players every Tuesday and Thursday morning for workouts, and they’re like a bunch of rowdy boys piling into his Suburban.
Gribble said Fields is golf smart and knows how to push the right buttons.
“He shuffles the deck well,” Gribble said. “Fields does a great job seeing what’s going on with my swing. In the middle of the Big 12 Championship, he was walking with me and pointed out something I needed to look out for and it helped.”
Fields was a four-year letterman at New Mexico and was a member of Lobos golf teams that finished fifth and seventh at the NCAA Championships.
“Having played college golf myself, I try to treat my players the way I wanted to be treated,” Fields said.
As head coach, Fields allows the players to create their own destinies and encourages competition within the group to put the best five players on the course for each tournament.
“We leave all that up to the players,” he said. “They qualify on a normal basis and get to play in the tournaments based on the way they perform. We’ve fostered a competitive environment. Competitive people like that and we have a team made up of guys who like to compete.”
Gribble said he’s never known anyone with a bigger heart than his coach.
“You’re not going to find a guy who bends over backwards the way Fields does for us,” Gribble said. “He’s like a father to me; we talk to each other every day. He’d take a bullet for any one of us and we know it.”
Fields laughed when asked if earning a second national championship is harder than winning the first.
“It took 25 years to get one, so I don’t know if trying to get a second could be any more difficult,” he said. “I know we’re all appreciative of winning the national championship last year, and if one came along again we’d be excited. To make that happen, we have to work hard.”
CHEMISTRY WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE
TEXAS HAS great players — without a doubt.
This year’s squad has some of the same components as last season’s, in addition to a good combination of youth and experience.
“It took all our guys to win last year, and it will this year, too,” Fields said. “This year’s team has some different skill sets.”
Outside of Stone’s feats, Gribble was named to the All-Big 12 Team for the second time in his collegiate career, having previously earned the honor in 2010. His third-place tie at the Big 12 Championship was a season best, and he had three additional top-five finishes this season. Gribble’s 71.50 scoring average ranks second on the team behind Stone’s 70.87.
Hickok enters the postseason on the heels of his best three-tournament stretch. He shot even-par 216 and finished in a then-career best tie for 13th place at the Augusta State Invitational, and then topped that performance a week later with a 1-under-par 212 at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate to tie for seventh. Hickok’s 10th -place finish at the Big 12 Championship placed him on the All-Tournament Team alongside Stone and Gribble.
To win a national championship, every player will need to make important swings and key shots in every round.
“This team is special, and we’ve had some great moments this season,” Vegas said. “We have a great chemistry that allows us to continue the momentum we had last year. I feel comfortable and confident in this year’s team, maybe even more so than last year.”
The competition within the team builds camaraderie, and the team’s leadership is defined by who’s playing well.
“No one has slacked off — we’ve all maintained our focus and drive,” Gribble said. “I love looking up to everyone on this team as much as they look up to me. This team drives me, and I’m sure I’ll have some withdrawal when this is all over.”
All the feel-good chemistry and team building will mean little if the Longhorns don’t get the job done. Texas worked hard to earn the No. 3 national ranking but rankings don’t matter at the end of the day. Every team has an equal chance in the postseason and anyone can win.
“In my freshman year at Texas, we were an underdog but we now have a team that always has a target on its back,” Gribble said. “Either you embrace the expectations or get consumed by them.”
The Longhorns are focused on finishing what they’ve started.
“This team is unbelievable,” Gribble said. “We’ve had an incredible year, but the expectations that have built up after last season are huge. We have a shot to repeat, but we have to play well and get a few breaks. Golf can be unkind but we’re going after it with all we have.”
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
The rest of this article is available to Digital Subscribers only. Login or Subscribe to continue reading. [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.