LA QUINTA, Calif. — Vanderbilt has captured The Prestige championship.
The Commodores ran away from the field Wednesday during the final round on the Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California, to claim their first team title since the 2021 Kingston Springs Regional and first outright regular-season team title since October of 2020. Vandy shot a 14-under-par 270 in what was far away the best round of any team Wednesday.
Only one other squad in the 24-team field shot under par Wednesday as Vanderbilt wound up with a three-day total of 868 (+16) to beat Oregon by 10 shots. The Dores totaled 20 birdies on the day.
“We just talked about coming out here today and just being excited and really competing to our standards and having a little fun and playing with some freedom,” Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh said. “The guys just got rolling today.”
The Dores were led by Gordon Sargent, Reid Davenport and Cole Sherwood who each finished inside the top 16. Davenport fired a 5-under-par during his final round and came in third overall (+1), just four shots back of individual champion Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech.
Sherwood (+2) finished fourth after a 3-under-par 68 on Wednesday. Sargent (+8) had Vanderbilt’s best score of the day at 6-under-par and tied for 16th overall.
“Reid was solid as a rock out there – he hit 17 greens and putted unbelievable,” Limbaugh said. “Cole Sherwood had a really good week from start to finish. He’s really coming into his own as a player. Then just proud of a freshman like Gordon Sargent to bounce back from a round like (an 83 on Tuesday) and to have the courage and internal fortitude to come out there today and shoot 65 to help lead us to our first win of the year.
“Just a great kickoff to the spring season.”
Matthew Riedel shot a 71 on Wednesday and settled for a tie for 28th at 10-over-par for the tournament. He had an eagle on No. 8.
Jackson Van Paris (tied for 77th; +17) was 4-over-par for his final round.
Vanderbilt waited patiently Wednesday morning for the remainder of the field to complete their respective rounds after competition had been suspended Tuesday. When the third round began Wednesday The Dores were alone in sixth place and five shots back of leader Texas Tech.
But The Dores quickly surged into the lead and made the turn up five strokes on Oregon at 9-under-par for the round.
“I knew that the scores were going to come back to us eventually. I know when we ended the round Tuesday it looked like the end of the world. Now there’s no excuse for the way we finished, but this is a confident group and a group that’s starting to jell together,” Limbaugh said. “We’ve been playing really well. We got some momentum. Saw some guys playing with passion out there and that just says a lot about our team to fight through the adversity that we faced this week and the kind of resilience that is takes to come back after a day like that to really dominate today. I am pumped for our kids.”
Vanderbilt senior Harrison Ott, competing as an individual at The Prestige Individual Tournament at Coral Mountain Golf Club, shot a 3-under-par 69 on Wednesday to finish with a 1-over-par 217 for the tournament. He finished tied for fifth and was seven shots back of Ian Maspat of Pepperdine took home the championship of that event at 6-under-par.
Vandy has a short turnaround this week as it heads to Los Cabos, Mexico, to take part in the Cabo Collegiate on The Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol starting Sunday.
“You learn to celebrate cool moments like this,” Limbaugh said. “You see young people go out and have that kind of day and that kind of courage and really just sprint through the finish line, that’s what we pride our program on. We’re starting to become a team and we still have a lot of work to do and we’re excited about that, but the good thing is we get to get right back on the saddle here in a few days at another great event.”
