A Great LSU Golf Moment On This Date -- Remembering The NCAA Championship Run In 2015

BATON ROUGE – It was 10 years ago (June 3, 2015) on the greens of The Concession in Bradenton, Florida that LSU men’s golf made history, winning its fifth NCAA men’s golf national championship.

It seems so long ago, but when you consider that LSU’s previous titles came in the 1940s and 1950s, the 2015 championship still remains fresh in our minds. It was a championship that involved both stroke play and match play, over some 120-plus holes.

The championship was a culmination of a crazy postseason road that very nearly didn’t happen. Call it a long shot at best.

To get to the Championships, LSU had to get through the NCAA regional at New Haven, Connecticut. LSU, however, entered the final round of the tournament 11 shots out of the fifth and final qualifying spot.

But the Tigers played their best and got that last qualifying spot and started fresh at the championship.

It would be the first year the women and then the men played the championship on the same course and the start of an expanded partnership with The Golf Championships that brought the NCAA event new focus and prestige.

Through 72 holes of stroke play over the course designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin, the Tigers achieved their first goal of making the top eight for match play. LSU shot rounds of 292-289-290-298 for a 17-over score of 1,169 over the difficult track and qualified in the seventh spot for match play. Zach Wright and Brandon Pierce of LSU tied for 11th place in the individual competition to finish at 1-over par 289. Eric Ricard finished at 4-over 292 to finish in a tie for 27th place.

Match Play Quarterfinals – LSU 3.5-Vanderbilt 1.5
LSU’s match play road was against familiar foes as they opened with No. 2 seed Vanderbilt.

Pierce, Ben Taylor and Wright were the first Tigers off the tee in LSU’s national quarterfinal match against Vanderbilt, and each defeated their Commodore rival to send LSU back to the NCAA Match Play semifinals for the second-straight year. Pierce won his match 1UP, while Taylor followed with a 3&2 victory and Wright would win the third point in the best-of-5 match with a 4&2 decision. LSU got another half point when Ricard halved his match after 18 holes.

Pierce and Taylor never trailed in their matches. Pierce took a 1UP lead on the third hole with a birdie, before a bogey on the sixth hole evened the match. Back-to-back birdies on the par 4 ninth and 10th holes gave the LSU side a 2UP lead with eight holes to play. But the match turned back even as Pierce’s opponent made consecutive birdies on the par 4 15th and 16th holes. That set up the pivotal shot of the match as Pierce would chip in for eagle from 50-feet out on the par 5 17th and then a par on 18th sealed the match for the Tigers.

Taylor matched his Vandy opponent with a birdie at 15 and a par at No. 16 to clinch his 3&2 victory.

Wright, who won both of his matches in the NCAA Championships in 2014 when LSU reached the semifinals, rallied from 2Down in the quarterfinals after just four holes of play. He squared the match with pars on holes 5 and 6 and then won four straight holes on 13-16 to seal the match win for the Tigers.

Match Play Semifinals — LSU 3.5-Georgia 1.5
After defeating the No. 2 seed in the quarterfinal round, the Tigers did the same thing to another member of the SEC and the No. 3 seed entering match play, the Georgia Bulldogs. It was senior All-America Taylor who scored the deciding point for the Tigers which sent them into the NCAA Championship match as he finished with a strong back nine to record a 2UP victory.

Second Team All-SEC performers Ricard and Wright got LSU’s other counting full points. Wright was a 7&6 winner and Ricard came up 4&3 on the good side in his match to get LSU’s three points. Pierce made up a three-hole deficit on the back nine to finish his match all square.

Taylor’s match with Georgia star Zach Healy drew the most attention when it looked as it would be the potential clincher for the Tigers. All square going to the back nine, Taylor fell one hole behind after a double bogey on the 10th hole. The match was tied again on the 12th and Taylor made a six-foot par at the par 4 15th to take the lead.

The pair halved the 16th and 17th holes and Taylor clinched it with a superb approach from 196 yards out that ended up three-feet from the cup for a tap-in birdie and the 2UP victory for LSU’s third point.

“The front nine was a massive grind,” Taylor said of the match. “It was quite windy and really raining so it was pretty tough to win holes and not give any away. It cleared up on the back nine and we started hitting some proper golf shots. We had to go out and make birdies to win holes. The 17th was a good example because right when I made a birdie (Zach Healy) came back and made birdie to extend the match. (On 18), it was 196 yards downwind with the pin back left, and I just fired it right in there at the pin.”

National Championship Match – LSU 4-USC 1.
Pierce, Taylor, Wright, Ricard and Stewart Jolly had one goal on the final day of the NCAA Championships and that was to bring a golf title back to Baton Rouge for the first time in 60 years. It was a challenge and did they ever respond.

Just as he did in the national semifinal match against Georgia, LSU’s Taylor scored the deciding point by rolling in a nine-foot par putt at the par 4 18th hole to claim a 1UP victory and LSU’s fifth national championship.

Wright and Pierce had already clinched points for the Tigers. Pierce put the first point on the board with a 2&1 win, while Wright followed with a 3&2 victory. In what would be the deciding match, Taylor found himself 1Down to his Trojan opponent after 16 holes, heading to the par 5, 17th hole. On what was very much a birdie hole, Taylor fired a four-iron approach from 258 yards to within five feet of the hole. He knocked the putt in for an eagle three to square the match heading to 18.

“Surprisingly not too bad,” Taylor said of his nerves as he prepared to hit his second shot on 17. “Before I hit my shot Coach (Chuck Winstead) asked me, ‘Are you having fun?’ It was hard to say no because it was a lot of fun. It was a perfect club, a perfect yardage, and we knew it was going to be a good shot. To see it run up that tier and go to the back of that green by that back pin was pretty special.”

Southern Cal ended up with a bogey at the 18th hole and that opened the door for Taylor to seal the national title for the Tigers as he buried his par putt after leaving his first putt short of the cup from the back left side of the green.

“It was a perfect moment to end a perfect college career, and I couldn’t be happier … “At first on the birdie putt (on 18), we knew that a two-putt was likely going to be good enough to win the national championship, but it was obviously a very fast putt that I left short. I had that putt in the practice round, about 10 feet down the hill. We had the line and I just had to put a good stroke on it.”

Pierce and Wright both ended their time at Concessional Golf Club unbeaten in match play. Pierce won 2&1, while Wright won 3&2. Ricard was also unbeaten in his first NCAA Championship, winning 1UP in a match ended after 16 holes with the overall title decided.

“I’m just so proud of these guys,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead of his team winning the national championship. “It’s hard to get into a position to even have a chance to win this tournament, and then when you show up out here today and you still have the resolve to play the way we did, I’m very proud of the guys on this team.”

June 3, 2015 – the day an NCAA Golf Championship returned to LSU.