CARLSBAD, Calif. – When are you going to play your greatest lineup?
Florida State head coach Trey Jones heard that query usually through the fall, and his response was at all times the identical: Simply wait.
“We had an thought for the large image,” Jones mentioned, “and it wasn’t to be the very best group in November.”
With a jam-packed semester that featured 5 tournaments, plus the World Beginner Workforce Championship in October, and got here on the heels of the Walker Cup at St. Andrews, Jones noticed eight totally different gamers crack the lineup. One in every of his seniors, Frederik Kjettrup, didn’t compete within the first three occasions, as Florida State completed sixth, seventh and seventh. One other senior, Cole Anderson, missed the East Lake Cup. And breakout senior, Grey Albright, didn’t earn a begin till the Stephens Cup, the penultimate event of the autumn; he’d finally displace sophomore Jack Bigham, who sat out the autumn opener due to the Walker Cup and by no means might persistently earn a beginning nod.
It was on the Stephens Cup the place Florida State, a reigning nationwide semifinalist that has climbed to sixth within the nationwide rankings (from No. 11 to begin the spring), first flashed its true potential. Kjettrup, Anderson and Albright teamed with stud sophomore Luke Clanton and senior Brett Roberts to win at Trinity Forest. That beginning 5 wouldn’t seem once more – primarily due to a severe again damage to Roberts – till the ACC Championship; the Seminoles completed second there and adopted that with a runner-up on the NCAA Stanford Regional.
Now, the Seminoles sit fourth by way of 54 holes of the NCAA Championship following a 2-under 286 that represented the second-best rating of the day, behind solely Illinois’ 282 that pushed the Illini six photographs away from the sphere.
“It’s been a gradual burn,” Anderson mentioned. “However like I informed the fellows, I’d slightly this than to have issues now.”
Anderson had a curler coaster of the season, posting 4 top-10s but in addition 4 finishes exterior the highest 50. He was subbed out for the ultimate spherical of the ACC Championship regardless of being simply 3 over by way of two rounds and solely three photographs from his closest teammate.
“I wasn’t joyful,” admitted Anderson, who additionally had his PGA Tour College rating plummet to No. 28 after that occasion, three spots out of PGA Tour Americas standing (he started the autumn at No. 11).
“However I mentioned to teach, I’ll commerce having to take a last-place end at ACCs to get a nationwide championship ring.”
Added Jones: “And he didn’t simply say it, he meant it.”
Anderson, who bounced again to go 2-0 at ACC match play and T-10 at regionals, is certainly one of three gamers, together with Roberts and Kjettrup, who competed as freshmen on a Seminoles squad that was ranked No. 1 within the nation earlier than falling within the match-play quarterfinals on the 2021 NCAA Championship. Two years later, they, plus Clanton, made it to the semifinals at nationals, solely to get bounced by rival Florida.
Roberts was on the shedding finish to Gators’ standout Ricky Castillo that day at Grayhawk. He nonetheless remembers the sting of watching Castillo and the remainder of Florida’s group rejoice on the tenth inexperienced after Castillo sank a putt to earn the clinching level in additional holes; the Gators, after all, would go on to win all of it, beating Georgia Tech within the ultimate.
“Each time we see Florida now, I really feel like all of us get a little bit flashback,” mentioned Roberts, who doesn’t must look that far down this week’s leaderboard to see Florida in eighth, 10 photographs again. “We use it as motivation, and we’re attempting to not let it occur once more.”
Kjettrup was a little bit extra blunt: “We’ve used it as gasoline, and it’s motivation to exit and beat everybody’s a— this yr.”
Roberts, nevertheless, didn’t know if he’d ever get his likelihood at NCAA redemption following a crushing analysis the week after the East Lake Cup in late October. An MRI revealed that Roberts had two stress fractures in his again. He wouldn’t hit a ball till round Christmas; after which, after his again instantly flared up, Roberts acquired two injections and shut it down for six extra weeks.
“I didn’t suppose he was going to be again,” Jones mentioned. “He was both finished or getting a medical redshirt.”
However Roberts returned in early April and tied for 22nd whereas taking part in as a person on the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial. He’s T-34 together with Anderson – and with nothing worse than a 75 – by way of 54 holes at Omni La Costa after not cracking the highest 25 at convention or regionals.
“I really feel like I’ve a little bit extra of an edge as a result of the time without work, I missed it a lot,” Roberts mentioned. “Golf is just about all I’ve, and these guys right here, it means a lot to be right here taking part in with them.”
Jones has applied what he calls a “brother’s keeper” rule, and he’s finished so ever for the reason that days of Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger. As Jones explains, “All of us must take care of one another and decide one another up.” Whether or not on the golf course or off it.
When Kjettrup opened the NCAA Championship in 12-over 84, capped by a 10-over again 9 and quadruple-bogey ‘9’ on the par-5 18th, Clanton, the top-ranked participant within the nation and a three-time winner this spring, fired a 1-under 71 in robust afternoon circumstances to maintain the Seminoles above water.
“Golf can get ugly typically whenever you’re out of it,” Kjettrup mentioned. “However I didn’t have to go round apologizing.”
Added Roberts: “I simply informed him he was a baller, and since then he’s come out and balled.”
The following day, no Florida State participant shot worse than 74. And on Sunday, Albright ballooned with a 79, lowlighted by a ‘10’ on the par-5 second. Clanton posted 70 and Kjettrup recorded a second straight 71.
That is the group that Jones has recognized he’s had all alongside. His gamers, too.
“We knew we had a great group this yr,” Kjettrup mentioned, “and we knew what was ready for us on the finish of the season.”
