Camden’s Cole Anderson won his head-to-head match in the NCAA Division I Golf Championships but his Florida State Seminoles lost to Auburn 3-2 in the five-player match play final at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa North Course in Carlsbad, Cal. on Wednesday.
Both schools were making their first ever appearances in the national final after advancing through the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Fifth seed Florida State beat No. 4 North Carolina 3-1 and No. 8 Georgia Tech 3-2 while sixth seed Auburn knocked off No. 3 Virginia 3-1 and No. 7 Ohio State 3-2.
Former Camden Hills of Rockport star Anderson, a redshirt senior, beat Carson Bacha 1-up for his first match play win this week after dropping his quarterfinal and semifinal matches to North Carolina’s Dylan Menante 2-and-1 and Georgia Tech’s Bartley Forrester (3-and-2), respectively.
Florida State’s Tyler Weaver won his match, 2-and-1 over Josiah Gilbert.
But Auburn’s Jackson Koivun topped Brett Roberts 5-and-4 and Brendan Valdes beat Frederik Kjettrup 4-and-3 to tie it and set up the deciding match between Florida State’s Luke Clanton and Auburn’s J.M. Butler.
Clanton had won his quarterfinal and semifinal matches while Butler won his semifinal match after not needing to finish his match in the Virginia pairing since his team had already secured the win by taking three of the first four matches.
Despite the fact Clanton played the 72-hole portion of the stroke play competition at 2-under-par 286, which was 18 strokes better than Butler, the Auburn golfer beat Clanton 2-and-1 to win the national title for his Tigers.
Clanton trailed by two shots with two holes to go and hit his drive into a bunker on the 17th hole.
He chipped it short of the green while Butler had already placed his approach shot on the green.
Clanton had to sink his chip shot to stand a chance of winning the hole and advancing to the final hole but his chip shot hit the back of the cup and rolled a few feet away.
That left Butler with two putts to halve the hole and win the match and the national title and he put his putt within a foot of the hole so Clanton conceded the hole and the match.
