By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — It has been said often that youth is wasted on the young, but Texas freshman golfers Cole Hammer, and twins Parker and Pierceson Coody, are doing their darnedest to make sure their first season on the Forty Acres produces a maximum return.
To wit: the three golfers have been among the leaders for this season’s men’s golf squad, a group that carries a No. 6 national ranking into play in the NCAA Austin Regional, which will be contested Monday-Wednesday as the University of Texas Golf Club.
Texas will host and is the top seed in the Austin Regional. The Longhorns are one [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]of 14 teams in the 54-hole tournament, which also will feature five individual players. The low five teams and the low individual not on those five qualifying teams at the regional will advance to the NCAA Championship May 24-29 at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
“We’ve been preparing for this all season,” Texas coach John Fields said. “I don’t think we have a target on our back. We haven’t earned that yet. But these teams would love to beat Texas on its own golf course. We are excited to host the event, which is the third time the club has hosted an NCAA Regional.”
Hammer, who has been ranked as high as the No. 6 amateur golfer in the country, will be the lead golfer for the Longhorns, the ninth time he’ll play the No. 1 bag in the nine tournaments in which he has competed season.
He has tied for medalist honors in two events this year, finished second in another and third in the Big 12 Championship in late April at the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia. Texas finished tied for third in the event.
Hammer ended up at 6 under par in the Big 12 Championship, two strokes behind medalist Hayden Springer (TCU), and led the Longhorns while recording five birdies and one bogey during the third round for his seventh-straight top-10 finish.
“We have been playing well, but we just haven’t put everything together enough to win a tournament,” Hammer said. “The way we finished at the conference championship makes me think we could have won there if we would have played the full 72 holes rather than 54, and I think we are peaking at the right time.”
Texas finished behind Oklahoma State, the No. 1 team in the nation, at the Big 12 Championship, with TCU second and the Longhorns and Oklahoma tied for third.
“Shortening the tournament to 54 holes may have affected us in the conference tournament — I don’t know — but we are still stinging a little bit from finishing third,” Fields said. “We have a chance to rectify that situation in the regional.”
Joining Hammer (who carries a 69.44 stroke average per round this season) and the Coody twins (Pierceson averages 71.19, and Parker’s average is 71.62) for Texas this week are senior Steven Chervony ( 71.30) and junior Spencer Soosman (73.19).
Texas plays one of the top schedules in the country each year, competing against the best players on the best teams on the top courses. Fields said that those week in and week out battles can help propel his team to the regional win and beyond. Playing on their home course is a double-edged sword for the Longhorns.
“Anytime you play at home, you can put added pressure on yourself because of expectations,” Fields explained. “We will have the advantage in the regional because we know the golf course well. All three of the freshmen have played our golf course under the gun in their junior careers, so they will embrace the fact that they have the local knowledge.”
The Longhorns will attempt to qualify for their 13th consecutive NCAA Championship. The Longhorns have made a total of 68 Championship appearances in program history.
The NCAA Austin Regional field includes (in seed order with Golfstat ranking): USC (7), Pepperdine (18), Clemson (19), TCU (30), Arkansas (31), Iowa (42), Marquette (43), San Jose State (54), Saint Mary’s [Calif.] (55), Sam Houston State (89), Missouri-Kansas City (96), Prairie View A&M (184), and Army (208).
Freshmen on top
If Fields is feeling any pressure with three of his top five players barely old enough to vote, he’s not showing it.
“We have had an infusion of freshmen that are very accomplished,” Fields said. “It took a little time for them to get their feet in the ground. All three of them have tremendous experience on a national and even an international basis.
“I’m excited about those guys, because they bring enthusiasm and they bring believeability with them, and they’ve shown this season that they can compete against the best collegiate golfers in the nation.”
Hammer has been one of the top amateur players in the country since before he could drive, playing in the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in Washington at age 15 and winning the prestigious Western Amateur last summer before teeing it up for Texas.
He won the 2018 U.S. Four Ball Championship with partner Garrett Barber last year, and was semifinalist in both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur.
In March, Hammer was named to the U.S. team for the Arnold Palmer Cup, a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring the top male and female university/college golfers matching the United States against Europe. Hammer is the third Texas player to be named to the team in the last five years, joining Beau Hossler and Doug Ghim (2016 and 2017, respectively).
“Cole does have some absolutes that he shares with the best golfers I’ve coached here — guys like Hossler, Jordan Spieth and Dylan Frittelli. They all have something special,” Fields said. “He’s a great driver of the golf ball, he’s very calm and in control in tense situations, and he has great short game — all way beyond his years.”
Pierceson and Parker Coody tied for 17th at 3-over par, the second-best score on the team, in the Big 12 Championship. Parker fired a third-round 71 with four birdies, while Pierceson shot a third-round 77.
The Coodys’ grandfather, Charles Coody, won the 1971 Masters Tournament, beating World Golf Hall of Famers Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller by two strokes. Their father, Kyle Coody, played golf for Texas from 1983-97.
“We are all golfers in my family,” Parker said. “My dad bought us whiffle balls and plastic clubs and we would play in the back yard, always trying to hit the ball as hard as we can, and that’s just progressed as we’ve grown up. We are very competitive with each other in everything, and always have been.
The twins have combined for 11 top-20 finishes this season, get along well and room together. They push each other and always have.
“I was a huge Jordan Shipley fan during that whole (Colt) McCoy-Shipley era of Texas football and I knew that if I ever had a chance to go the Texas then I would,” Pierceson said. “It wasn’t a package deal. I wasn’t necessarily going to go to college where Parker went, but we both chose Texas independently.”
With three freshman players among the most dynamic in the country, Texas is set to make some noise this week, in two weeks at the NCAAs, and in the coming years.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.