April 24, 2018
Live Scoring | Zac Ellis: Augenstein on fire for VU golf
The fourth-ranked Vanderbilt men’s golf team begins its championship season this Wednesday at the SEC Championship at the Sea Island Golf Club’s in St. Simons, Ga. where the Commodores will be the No. 2 seed in the stroke-play/match-play format. The Commodores, the defending champions at the event, will tee it up at the par-70, 6,898-yard Seaside Course for the weekend.
This year’s SEC Championship format will be the second year of the stroke/match play format that the Commodores won last season. Fifty-four holes of stroke play will take place on Wednesday-Friday (18 holes a day), with the top eight teams advancing to match play on Saturday. The quarterfinals and semifinals will take place on Saturday, with the championship match being played on Sunday morning live in front of a nationally-televised audience on the SEC Network (coverage begins at 7 am CT). The semifinals will also be televised on SEC Network+ beginning at 3 p.m. CT.
The Commodores, who will be paired with No. 1-seed Texas A&M and No. 3-seed Alabama, will tee off on Wednesday afternoon at 12:05 p.m. Central Time. Tee times begin at 6:30 a.m. CT on Thursday and Friday.
“First of all, this week and this championship are just so much fun for everyone,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh. “Sea Island is a great place for all of our families and fans to get to travel to and Seaside is a great venue for our student-athletes to have the opportunity to compete. Our conference is probably as strong as it has ever been this year. When you look at the entire league, its really pretty remarkable.”
Vanderbilt will send senior Theo Humphrey, juniors Will Gordon and Patrick Martin, sophomore John Augenstein, and redshirt freshman Mason Greenberg to compete for the Commodores this weekend.
The Commodores are one of eight SEC teams ranked in the top 25 heading into this week’s festivities, alongside No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 6 Alabama, No. 7 Florida, No. 9 Auburn, No. 11 LSU, No. 16 Arkansas, and No. 19 Kentucky.
“The regular season has ended and championship season has arrived and to me that’s very exciting,” said Limbaugh. “I think we have taken some really good steps throughout the year and I am proud of how this team competes. We have not played our best golf as a team yet this year, which Is exciting, and hopefully we can come closer to doing that during this next phase of our season. This time of the year is really about choosing confidence, focusing on the right things, and playing with passion. When our guys do those things it shows me that our team matters to them. It’s about having fun and embracing this opportunity we have. If we want to be a great team then we are going to have to do the small and simple things at a higher level than we have up to this point.”
Live scoring can be found throughout the weekend on Golfstat.com.
Commodore tidbits heading to SEC Championship
Limbaugh in sixth season
Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh, who is in his sixth season with the Commodores, has led Vanderbilt to 16 team titles in his tenure, with the Commodores capturing four titles this season – the East Lake Cup, the SunTrust Gator Invitational, the Schenkel Invitational, and the Mason Rudolph Championship.
Last season at the NCAA Championship, the Commodores won the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championship in Sugar Grove, Ill. by 12 shots, which set a new record for margin of victory in the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championship since the tournament changed to a match play format in 2009. In fact, it was the largest margin of victory in stroke play since the 2001 NCAA Championship, when Florida defeated Clemson by 18 shots. The Commodores advanced to the Final Four in the match play portion of the tournament.
Limbaugh has led the team to four consecutive NCAA Championship appearances, and the team has finished first (2017), second (2015) and fourth (2016), respectively, in the last three NCAA Championships in stroke play. The Commodores have advanced to match play in each of the seasons, the only team in the SEC to accomplish the feat.
Limbaugh wins 2017 Dave Williams Coach of the Year
Limbaugh was named the Dave Williams Collegiate Coach of the Year, the GCAA Southeast Region Coach of the Year and the SEC Coach of the Year in 2017 after finishing as one of five finalists for the Dave Williams Collegiate Coach of the Year in 2015. Limbaugh is the program’s first Dave Williams Award winner and the first Vanderbilt men’s golf coach to win SEC Coach of the Year award honors.
All-SEC Selections Under Limbaugh
Since Limbaugh’s arrival in 2012, the Commodores have had 12 All-SEC selections, a Player of the Year (Hunter Stewart in 2015), and a Freshman of the Year (John Augenstein in 2017). Prior to his arrival, Vanderbilt had a total of 10 selections, with seven coming from current PGA stars Luke List (four-time selection, 2004-07) and Brandt Snedeker (three-time selection, 2001-03).
The Commodores were front and center in the selections honoring the best in the league in 2016-17. Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh won the program’s first SEC Coach of the Year honor and freshman John Augenstein was named the league’s Freshman of the Year, while Patrick Martin and Matthias Schwab were named to the All-SEC First Team and Theo Humphrey was named to the All-SEC Second Team for their accolades.
All-Americans
Four Commodores were named to the 2017 Golf Coaches Association of America All-American teams, with Patrick Martin being named Vanderbilt Men’s Golf’s fourth first-team All-American and the third in the last three years. Matthias Schwab was named to the second team, Theo Humphrey the third team, and John Augenstein to the All-Freshman and Honorable Mention teams.
Martin joins Matthias Schwab (2016), Hunter Stewart (2015), and Brandt Snedeker (2004) as Vanderbilt’s all-time first-team selections. Three of the last 10 Freshmen All-Americans in 2016 and 2017 were Commodores – Will Gordon, Patrick Martin, and John Augenstein. In all, the Commodores have had 10 All-American selections since 2013.
Golfstat Rankings
Vanderbilt enters the SEC Championship as the number two seed in the conference and number four in the nation according to Golfstat.com.
Career leaders currently on course for Dores
Four Commodores currently competing on the course are four of the top five scorers in program history. Junior Patrick Martin is second with a 70.86 stroke average in 91 stroke-play rounds played, senior Theo Humphrey is third at 71.12 strokes per round in 97 total rounds, sophomore John Augenstein is fourth all-time with a 71.35 stroke average in 62 rounds, and junior Will Gordon is fifth with a career average of 71.42 in 91 rounds played. Current PGA Tour member Jon Curran, who played from 2005-09 is sixth with a 71.56 stroke average, and PGA star Brandt Snedeker is seventh with a 71.77 career average. Snedeker played for Vanderbilt from 2000-2004.
Match Play Records
This season, Vanderbilt is 2-0 in match play competitions after defeating Oregon and Illinois at the East Lake Cup in Atlanta to close the fall season. This season, Will Gordon is 2-0, John Augenstein is 2-0, Theo Humphrey 1-0-1, Patrick Martin 1-0-1, and Harrison Ott 1-1.
Single Season Records
Four of the top 13 single-season stroke averages are being registered this season – Theo Humphrey‘s 69.84 average is second, Will Gordon‘s 70.40 is fifth, and Patrick Martin and John Augenstein‘s 71.08 average are tied for 13th all-time on the single-season list. Twelve out of the top 15 all-time stroke averages having come from Scott Limbaugh-coached players.
Three Individual Titles In 2017-18
The Commodores have won three individual titles to go along with their four team titles this season, with Will Gordon claiming the East Lake Cup, Theo Humphrey the Schenkel Invitational, and John Augenstein the Mason Rudolph Championship. Vanderbilt has won 13 individual titles since Scott Limbaugh took over the program in 2012.
Balanced Effort
Vanderbilt has had three separate individual winners, 12 top-five finishes (four different players) and 19 top-10 finishes (five different players).
Dores not afraid to go low
In 2017-18, the Commodores have 35 rounds in the 60’s on reknown courses – Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pumpkin Ridge Country Club, Isleworth Country Club, and the East Lake Golf Club to name a few of the courses.
