CARLSBAD, Calif. – The seating space in Bar Traza, Omni La Costa Resort and Spa’s late-night spot for libations and light-weight bites, was jam-packed with Auburn supporters when Tigers senior J.M. Butler walked into the room, nonetheless donning his national-championship T-shirt.
The ovation was deafening.
Only a couple hours earlier, Butler had capped a dominant match-play efficiency with a 2-and-1 victory over Florida State’s Luke Clanton that earned Butler the clinching level and Auburn its first NCAA Championship in males’s golf.
That’s precisely what Butler promised Tigers head coach Nick Clinard as a high-school senior, sitting in Clinard’s workplace on a recruiting go to and proclaiming, “I need to win a nationwide championship, and if I come to Auburn, that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Right here he’s now,” Clinard mentioned, “a senior, on his final gap of faculty golf, and he bought it completed for us.”
Added Butler: “This was my future.”
The highest-ranked staff within the nation getting into the week, Auburn not solely gained 10 stroke-play tournaments, two shy of Cal’s modern-day NCAA document (12, 2012-13), however the Tigers additionally misplaced to only 9 groups all season – 5 of these losses got here in stroke play at La Costa – and accomplished the 12 months with an ideal 8-0 document in match play, a ledger topped by Wednesday’s thrilling 3-2 win over fifth-ranked Florida State.
“I instructed them earlier than we bought right here, in the event that they gained this golf event, they might go down as the most effective groups within the historical past of faculty golf,” Clinard mentioned, “and I feel we’ve completed that.”
It took a village.
•••
IN TRUE ROCKY BALBOA trend, Butler can usually be discovered scaling the hundreds of steps at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Most occasions, he’s alone. And when he’s not doing that, he’s within the health club.
“He’s a giant health man,” Clinard says.
Butler, a psychology main who will graduate this summer season earlier than embarking on his skilled profession, says he’s always finding out the best athletes of all-time – how they prepare, how they assume, how they management their respiration. As a Louisville native, Butler particularly idolizes legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.
“I’m simply attempting to determine what made them nice,” Butler mentioned, “and the way I can take what they do and add that to my sport.”
Butler is just the second participant in program historical past to attain All-SEC standing 4 occasions. He hung out because the nation’s top-ranked participant as a sophomore, although he really broke out finally summer season’s U.S. Beginner, advancing to the semifinals at Cherry Hills earlier than falling to Ohio State’s Neal Shipley.
On Tuesday at La Costa, Butler bought his revenge on Shipley, downing the reigning Masters low novice, 2 and 1, to assist ship the Tigers to their first NCAA remaining. Butler by no means trailed in any match at nationals, and for the season, he went 6-2 within the format.
For Clinard, regardless of a “rocky spring” that noticed Butler win twice but in addition end T-49 or worse 3 times previous to the postseason, there was no different participant he needed within the anchor spot.
“He’s the man who needs the golf ball in his arms,” Clinard mentioned. “He simply hit clutch shot after clutch shot. A number of guts, and lots of coronary heart.”
Butler didn’t lead Clanton, a three-time winner this spring, by greater than 1 up till the par-4 15th gap, when Clanton despatched his method bounding over the inexperienced, down a steep slope and into the water. Butler then almost holed a bunker shot on the par-3 16th earlier than sealing the cope with a routine par on the par-4 penultimate gap, the place Clanton’s birdie chip hit the again of the cup and bounced out, sending Clanton collapsing to the bottom; he’d lay on his again for a number of seconds.
Moments later, Butler was being mobbed by his teammates, who tackled him to the bottom. No uppercut wanted.
Nonetheless sore from the celebration, Butler mentioned, “I don’t know how one can beat this.”
•••
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA – MAY 28: Jackson Koivun of the Auburn Tigers celebrates with a teammate after defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes within the semifinals throughout the Division I Males’s Golf Championship held at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on Might 28, 2024 in Carlsbad, California. (Picture by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Pictures through Getty Photographs)
NCAA Pictures through Getty Photographs
FOR THE FIRST TIME since Alabama’s Justin Thomas in 2012, a freshman gained the Haskins Award, the game’s solely participant of the 12 months that’s chosen by gamers and coaches. That was Jackson Koivun, who additionally claimed the Hogan and Nicklaus awards, plus the Phil Mickelson Award because the nation’s high freshman.
“He was the perfect participant within the nation coming in,” Clinard mentioned, “however I didn’t assume he was going to do that.”
The soft-spoken Koivun completed sixth or higher in all however one in every of his 12 begins. He gained the SEC particular person title by a whopping six pictures and went an ideal 8-0 in match play. Within the quarterfinals and semifinals, it was Koivun who made the clinching putt for the Tigers. Not shocking when you take into account that Auburn volunteer assistant Buddy Alexander, who gained two NCAA titles as Florida’s head coach, known as Koivun, “The perfect putter I’ve ever seen at that age.”
And Alexander coached a man by the title of Brian Homosexual.
“He’s dynamic with the flatstick in his arms,” Clinard added.
Maybe the one weak spot in Koivun’s sport is his chipping. However what did he do Wednesday to place away Brett Roberts, 5 and 4? He chipped in from behind the 14th inexperienced.
“I walked by Brendan Valdes after that, and he goes, “Oh, I suppose Jackson allow you to out of labor early at the moment,’” Clinard mentioned, laughing. “He’s only a winner.”
With as a lot as Koivun completed individually this season, he’d by no means smiled as huge as he did Wednesday night time when requested how an NCAA staff title in contrast.
“This tops all of them,” he mentioned.
•••
SPEAKING OF SMILING, NO one on the Auburn staff does it greater than Valdes, the junior from Orlando, Florida, who Clinard says has an infectious character.
“Buddy at all times tells me, seem like you’re having a joyous time,” Valdes mentioned.
After successful 4 of 5 holes Wednesday in opposition to Frederik Kjettrup to flip their match and take a 3-up lead after 10 holes, Valdes was downright buzzing. 5 holes later, Valdes was a 4-and-3 winner.
Valdes additionally joined Koivun as a first-team All-American, and he is perhaps probably the most athletic individual on the staff, in accordance with Clinard. Valdes is a former gymnast who excelled in all 5 disciplines. He can clear a 48-inch field bounce and hovers round 185 mph ball pace. And when he will get sizzling, he can rattle off birdies with the perfect of them.
“He’s going to do very properly on the Tour,” Clinard mentioned, “as a result of he’s going to have seven to eight weeks the place he shoots 20 underneath.”
•••
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA – MAY 29: Josiah Gilbert of the Auburn Tigers tees off in opposition to the Florida State Seminoles within the championship match throughout the Division I Males’s Golf Championship held at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on Might 29, 2024 in Carlsbad, California. (Picture by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Pictures through Getty Photographs)
NCAA Pictures through Getty Photographs
CLINARD WAS SPEAKING TO a bunch of Alabama highschool golf coaches a couple of years in the past when one pulled him apart and mentioned, “There’s a child who simply moved right here from Australia who you must have a look at.”
“I’m like, yeah, I’ve heard that one earlier than,” Clinard recalled.
The coach, who coached at a rival highschool, replied, “It might be price your time.”
That child was Josiah Gilbert.
The son of Jeremy Gilbert, the director of instruction at Capitol Hill in Prattville, Alabama, and the oldest of 5 siblings, Gilbert by no means had his personal room till transferring into his dorm at Auburn. Although underneath the radar, largely as a result of pandemic, Gilbert picked the Tigers over rival Alabama.
However he went eight begins earlier than lastly cracking the beginning lineup for Auburn at its remaining occasion main into convention, the Mossy Oak Collegiate. Clinard admits he “rolled the cube somewhat bit” in inserting Gilbert into the counting squad, however he beloved his PGA Tour-level skillset. Plus, again in January, Alexander had instructed Clinard that Gilbert can be within the postseason lineup.
“Simply you wait,” Alexander mentioned to Clinard, who was skeptical on the time.
Gilbert took the chance and ran with it. He completed solo fifth because the Tigers swept the highest 5 ending positions. He then closed SECs with a bogey-free 68 earlier than going 3-0 in match play, and he adopted that with one other top-5 on the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional.
“I really feel prefer it’s only a matter of time earlier than a few of us discover our groove,” Gilbert mentioned, “and that’s what I did this spring.”
•••
CARSON BACHA IS THE kind of child, Clinard says, who you’d need you daughter to marry. He’s a talented ball-striker, a finance main who holds a 3.5 GPA, and unquestionably the neatest employee on the staff.
However after a T-11 end at Auburn’s fall opener, the Mirabel Maui Jim Intercollegiate, Bacha fell out of the lineup. A minimum of till the calendar hits April, Clinard has his gamers qualify for each spot; Bacha wasn’t taking part in poorly, he was simply on the flawed finish of a deep roster.
“It makes you more durable on the finish of the 12 months,” Clinard says of his strategies.
Bacha, who started working with teacher Mark Blackburn this season to appropriate his tendency to generally over-draw the golf ball, responded, posting six straight top-6 finishes getting into SECs. He by no means surrendered his place within the lineup after that.
“Coach at all times talks about how this form of stuff takes all of us, and we’re always pushing one another again house,” Bacha mentioned. “Qualifying is likely one of the hardest tournaments we play all 12 months. Clearly, it’s nice to have that sort of depth, and also you’re actually working exhausting at house, and while you’re capable of break by way of in qualifying, it actually builds confidence.”
•••
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA – MAY 29: Head coach Nick Clinard of the Auburn Tigers celebrates with the trophy as his staff appears to be like on after defeating the Florida State Seminoles within the championship match throughout the Division I Males’s Golf Championship held at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on Might 29, 2024 in Carlsbad, California. (Picture by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Pictures through Getty Photographs)
NCAA Pictures through Getty Photographs
AFTER PROFESSIONAL GOLF DIDN’T work out, Clinard figured his subsequent step can be as a golf teacher. Then, in 2001, UCF was in search of a head males’s golf coach.
So, Clinard dialed then Knights’ athletic director, Steve Sloan, who had recruited Clinard’s brother whereas the pinnacle soccer coach at Duke. After some dialog, Clinard, a 28-year-old with zero expertise, inquired concerning the job opening.
When he was finally provided the place, which paid $25,000 per 12 months with no advantages, Clinard jumped on the alternative, saying, “I’ll take it!”
“My workplace was in a trailer, and I simply went to work,” Clinard mentioned. “And I didn’t actually know what I used to be doing, to be trustworthy.”
Eight years later, Clinard was employed by Auburn. He introduced with him future PGA Tour professional Blayne Barber, who helped Clinard lay a robust basis. He additionally led the revamp of the Tigers’ follow facility. On the golf course, Auburn has now reached 11 of 13 NCAA Championships underneath Clinard. The Tigers superior to the nationwide semifinals in 2018 at Karsten Creek, and in every of the previous two seasons, they notched top-10s on the NCAA Championship, although fell simply wanting match play each occasions.
“I joked with our A.D.; we’ve now made 9 ‘Candy 16s’ the final 15 years,” Clinard mentioned. “I mentioned, ‘Hell, if I used to be Bruce Pearl, you’d construct me a rattling shrine.’”
Added Alexander: “Nobody works more durable than Nick.”
However on the morning of Auburn’s national-championship bout with Florida State, Clinard redirected the reward. He’s lengthy mentioned, as a golf coach, “30% of teaching is golf; the remainder is life.” His groups don’t chase expectations however reasonably requirements. None of that is about him.
“I don’t want this win at the moment to validate my profession,” Clinard mentioned as he sipped a espresso in the identical room that will function Auburn’s after-party that night time. “I’d like to win one for these gamers, for all of the previous gamers who made this program nice, and clearly, would like to win one for the Auburn household.”
If the bathroom paper streaming from the oaks at Toomer’s Nook again on the Auburn campus late Wednesday night time was proof, the achievement was a lot appreciated.
And Butler’s assure fulfilled.
