The winning Vanderbilt team
(Vanderbilt Athletics Photo)
ATLANTA, GA (November 1, 2017) - In a battle of golf heavy weights it was Vanderbilt and USC winning the East Lake Cup titles.
Vanderbilt took the men's title 3-0-2 over two-time defending champion Illinois while it was USC besting Stanford for the women's title 3-2. The title for the Trojans was their second in three-years fat East Lake Golf Club.
Wednesday's title matches featured the four teams that lost in last years NCAA semifinals.
Related: Revenge is Semi-Sweet at the East Lake Cup
Vanderbilt took control of their match early thanks to the play of Monday's medalist Will Gordon who went out in the first match and knocked off Michael Feagles 2&1. Early Feagles was in control of the match winning the opening hole and then the 4th to take a quick 2 up lead but Gordon responded and squared the match by the 10th hole. With the match now tied, Gordon would move in front with a win on the 12th hole before extending his lead to 3 up with wins on Nos. 14 and 15 as well.
“It was a good week for sure,” said Will Gordon. “We wanted to come here and to end the fall on a good note and get a team win. This tournament is awesome. Just to play on national TV and have your friends and family be able to watch. It is a really cool experience. It gets the jitters going, and I think that makes us better.”
The biggest point of the day for Vanderbilt was earned by freshman Harrison Ott who defeated Brendan O’Reilly 1 up. Ott was 3 up after eight holes only to watch O'Reilly storm back to tie the match on the 14th. However, the freshman didn't fold even after losing the 15th hole to go 1 down as he won the 16th and 17th holes to take a 1 up lead. On the 18th hole Ott executed a nifty up-and-down to save par and when O'Reilly's birdie putt to win the hole slid by the match belonged to Ott.
“I am usually pretty even keeled which isn’t great for match play,” said Harrison Ott. “In the momentum swings, I learned to be a little more edgy, going after it, being a little more aggressive. It was really enjoyable.”
The third Vanderbilt point came from wire-to-wire winner John Augenstein who won 4&3 over Giovanni Tadiotto. In the two anchor matches Patrick Martin (Vanderbilt) halved with Nick Hardy (Illinois) while Theo Humphrey (Vanderbilt) and Dylan Meyer (Illinois) halved as well.
“This place is amazing,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh. “We have had one of the best weeks we have ever been able to have. We are fortunate to be able to come here twice. I am just thankful. We want to be thankful for opportunities like this. This was a thrilling week for our program, and we have a lot of people who watched us on national television. That is what you dream of. You dream of opportunities on TV, of people watching and cheering for you.”
In the third place match defending NCAA champion Oklahoma handled last years national runner-up and 2015 national title winning Oregon 4-1. On Tuesday Oklahoma fell to Illinois 3-2 in the semifinals while Oregon lost to Vanderbilt 4-1.
For Vanderbilt this was their first team victory of the year and it came in their final tournament of the fall season.
-Vanderbilt Athletics Contributed to this this story
View results for East Lake Cup
ABOUT THE
East Lake Cup
Started in 2015 and hosted by the historic
East
Lake Golf Club Atlanta, this collegiate, three-day
match
play competition features the top-performing
teams
from the previous year's NCAA Men’s
Golf Championships. There is an individual award for
the low 18-hole scorer
in the seeding round.
View Complete Tournament Information