It seems as if national champions were crowned just yesterday, but instead we’re at the end of the fall college golf season in one of the craziest starts to the year in the sport’s history.
Sure, the top teams have claimed tournament titles and new stars have burst onto the scene, but that doesn’t mean the season has been short on drama and storylines and events that have altered the sport.
College golf is entering a quiet time until February, when it will quickly ramp back up as teams begin the pursuit to make it to Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California, site of the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Here are some of the biggest stories from men’s college golf this fall.
North Carolina, Auburn and Vanderbilt off to hot starts
It has been a stellar start to the fall for North Carolina, Auburn and Vanderbilt.
The top-ranked Tar Heels have won three of their five tournaments, including the Fighting Illini Invitational and East Lake Cup. The two tournaments North Carolina didn’t finish first? It placed second to Vanderbilt at the Ben Hogan Collegiate and the St. Andrews Links Collegiate.
Meanwhile, No. 2 Auburn has lost to only one team in stroke play, finishing second at the Williams Cup behind the Tar Heels. The Tigers have captured wins at SEC Match Play, the Mirabel Maui Jim Intercollegiate and the Fallen Oak Collegiate.
Vanderbilt, ranked third, won the Ben Hogan Collegiate, Valero Texas Collegiate and St. Andrews Links Collegiate. Its only stroke-play loss thus far? SEC Match Play against Auburn, where the Commodores also fell in the first-place match against the Tigers.
The top-three teams have separated themselves at the beginning of the year, losing only to one another throughout the fall. Time will tell whether North Carolina, Auburn and Vanderbilt will persevere in the spring and make it into match play at NCAAs.
Checking out the top individuals
Similar to the top teams, the top individuals have had spectacular starts to the fall.
Alabama sophomore Nick Dunlap, the U.S. Amateur champion, won the stroke-play portion of SEC Match Play, won his match, then finished second at the Hamptons Intercollegiate and eighth at the Fighting Illini Invitational. He also finished second at the World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi last month.
Meanwhile, Georgia Tech senior Christo Lamprecht, the top-ranked men’s amateur in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and No. 2 in the college rankings, has a pair of wins at the Ben Hogan Collegiate and the Fighting Illini Invitational on top of two match-play wins at the East Lake Cup, where he finished eighth in stroke play.
Gordon Sargent, the junior at Vanderbilt and one spot behind Lamprecht in WAGR, finished runner-up to Dunlap in stroke play at SEC Match Play and also placed third at the Ben Hogan. He’s fifth in the individual rankings, behind North Carolina’s David Ford (third) and Maxwell Ford (fourth).
Only one undefeated team left in Division I
There’s only one undefeated men’s team left in Division I golf after the fall season: Drexel.
The Dragons have teed it up four times and won that many trophies, too. It’s the best start to a season in program history and has Drexel ranked inside the top 100 for the first time.
The Dragons have collected victories at the Temple Invitational, JT Poston Invitational, Big 5 Golf Championship and ODU/Kilmarlic Invitational.
Drexel is 45-0-0 in the fall. Fifth-year Oscar Maxfield won the Big 5 Golf Championship and placed second at the Temple Invitational. Senior Drue Nicholas won the ODU/Kilmarlic and has a fourth at the Temple Invitational and sixth at the Big 5 Golf Championship.
It was a fall for the records books for Drexel.
East Tennessee State continuing to build
The East Tennessee State men’s golf program has made the NCAA Championship the past two seasons. This year, they’re one of the top-10 teams in the country after the fall.
East Tennessee State has victories in Hawaii at the Ka’anapali Classic and the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate. It also finished second at the Windon Memorial Classic, third at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate and fourth at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate.
Fifth-year Mats Ege and junior Algot Kleen are big reasons for East Tennessee State’s strong start. Ege won the Bank of Tennessee Collegiate, placed second at the Ka’anapali Classic and hasn’t finished worse than T-6. Kleen won the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate and was runner-up to Ege at the Bank of Tennessee Collegiate.
East Tennessee State is the only mid-major ranked in the top 20 after the fall season. The team looks primed to make its third straight appearance at NCAAs this spring, however, it’s looking to take it one step further and make it into match play.
Rankings debacle
The biggest story of the fall has been the live scoring and ranking debacle. Two weeks ago, the first NCAA Golf Rankings were released.
On Tuesday, Mark Broadie, who’s in charge of publishing the new rankings, held a webinar for coaches to ask questions and discuss how the new rankings, which is a points-based system, work.
As expected with a new system, there’s plenty of confusion and questions on the formulas and how teams are awarded points. Plenty of coaches expressed frustration with the system during the webinar, some even saying they’re more frustrated after.
Ultimately, the rankings are going to have some bumps to sort through as coaches and players get used to the new formulas. As more data comes in, it will be interesting to see how the rankings evolve and whether the college golf community comes to understand the new system more.
