The Alabama men’s golf team finished third in its home tournament, the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate, which was played last Monday and Tuesday. No. 1 Florida finished second to the No. 22 Auburn Tigers.
Although it was an improvement from the Crimson Tide’s fourth-place finish in the Illini Invitational, the team is still unhappy with its performance. Alabama has won the last four Jerry Pate National Intercollegiates, a streak that tied Clemson’s 1997-2000 streak.
“I was kind of disappointed,” junior Bud Cauley said. “I feel like I made mistakes out there that cost me and my team. We just made too many mistakes, too many bogeys and double bogeys. We made enough birdies to win, just too many mistakes.”
Cauley finished 1-under par for a seventh place finish. Freshman Bobby Wyatt turned some heads at the Jerry Pate, tying for second at 6-under par. He was only two strokes behind singles winner Niclas Carlsson of Auburn.
“Bobby did a great job,” head coach Jay Seawell said. “It’s those kind of performances that solidify him as a legitimate All-American candidate as a true freshman. He carried us all through the first round.”
Despite Wyatt’s great performance and a strong final round at 3-under par from freshman Trey Mullinax, Seawell still saw the disappointment in his team.
“We had a lot of missed shots, missed chances and overall bad execution out there,” Seawell said. “A lot of good came out of this tournament, but it was just disappointing to see that many chances slip away.”
As the birdie chances slipped away, so did the tournament.
“It was anyone’s tournament to win going into the last nine holes,” Seawell said. “Us, Florida and Auburn were right there together. All the credit to Auburn, they did what you have to do down the stretch to win golf tournaments. We just didn’t execute.”
The tournament did bring some good for the Tide, especially for Mullinax.
“It was his first tournament for Alabama ever,” Seawell said. “He was a little wide-eyed his first day, but he did a great job of keeping things simple. I’m glad he was able to do that out there; hopefully that will boost his confidence a little.”
Although Wyatt’s and Mullinax’s performances made highlights for the Tide, the team says that they hope this loss is going to be a motivator as the fall tournaments continue.
“It definitely wasn’t fun watching Auburn win this thing,” Seawell said. “We know it’s hard to win every one of them, and we realize we will get beat. But we’re going to use this as motivation.”
Cauley said, “Getting beat by those two teams at home will definitely light a fire under us, make us keep working.”
There’s no time to dwell on this for Alabama, as they will head to Windermere, Fla., in 10 days to play in the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational.
“I think that everyone has different things to work on,” Cauley said. “Now that we are all aware of our weaknesses, we can put forth the effort to fix those things. I’m going to work on game management. I didn’t manage my mistakes well enough, and it caused some unforced errors.”
The Isleworth Collegiate Invitational will have one of the best fields Alabama has faced yet. It will include defending national champions Oklahoma State, a rematch with Florida and the historically great Stanford program.
“We need to be at our best for this field,” Seawell said. “We’re going to work hard these next 10 days, work on being excellent in preparation and being at our best mentally when we start these big tournaments.”
