It took one day of golf for Mansfield coach Trampas Wilson to be convinced that he has a special team this season at Mansfield.
The Tigers came back from an 8-shot deficit on the final day to win the state preview tournament in Austin last weekend.Mansfield ended up winning the tournament by four shots and toppling many of the best teams in Texas. The Tigers have now won both their tournaments since the calendar turned to 2013. Mansfield won the Aggie Cup in College Station in January.“We talked in team meeting the night before that this was a chance to make a statement,” Wilson said. “No one can remember what you do in January. They remember how you play right now.”Even more impressive for Wilson was that Mansfield had never played this golf course before. That made the win all the sweeter, Wilson said.It also helped that his team battled some adversity in the weekend.“On the first day the weather was tough, cold and windy,” he said. “The kids played great. I was ecstatic.”After the first day, Southlake Carroll led the tournament by eight strokes. With a clearer day for the final round, Mansfield took advantage as almost all over the Tigers posted significantly better scores on day two as opposed to day one.Wilson’s message to the team was simple: stay even on the difficult par-threes and then take advantage of the par-fours and fives.“There were two short par-fours, we needed to birdie those holes,” Wilson said. “There were four par-fives. Let’s make the easy birdies on the par-fives and take care of the par-fours.”The Tigers responded accordingly, with four of the five players scoring even-par or lower. Seniors Cole Barnett, Hayden Frederick and Will Clark all shot 71s on the final day to lead the comeback.Senior Andre Garcia shot a 72 and senior Luke Neeley shot a 74. Wilson was proud of how his players responded to adversity on the final day and for turning an 8-stroke deficit into a 4-shot win.“They were pretty fired up, we were playing with several rivals,” Wilson said. “One rival is Southlake Carroll and team effort, I mean, that’s a 12-shot swing against big rivals. That’s pretty awesome.”The win has given the team new confidence to finish the year. Wilson said there are still some things for the team to work on. But in the meantime, he wants his team to feel like they can beat anyone in the state.After this tournament, that feeling has spread throughout the entire team, Wilson said.“Their confidence is that no one can beat us,” Wilson said. “I want them to feel like they’re the best team.”Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
