Vanderbilt tops Florida by one shot to win Nike event at Colonial
With Vanderbilt locked in a back-and-forth battle with Florida on Tuesday afternoon at Colonial Country Club, about the only thing bothering Commodores freshman John Augenstein was the kind of shorts his coaches were wearing.
With both teams tied on the 54th hole, Augenstein faced a wedge approach and deadpanned to coach Scott Limbaugh and assistant Dusty Smith, “Are y’all wearing matching shorts, are those coaching shorts?”
Augenstein then calmly fired his second shot to within 18 feet of the hole and two-putted for par to give Vanderbilt a one-stroke victory and its first win of the fall season in blustery conditions at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational in Fort Worth.
“What John Augenstein just did there for his team was huge,” Limbaugh said. “To play the way he did, coming down the stretch at a place like this — Colonial — that’s saying something about the kind of player he is.”
Just 1 over on the day, Augenstein came off a disastrous double bogey at the 15th hole to record three closing pars for a 73, sealing the victory for the Commodores.
Florida had pulled a shot ahead after Augenstein’s misfortune, and the Gators stayed there until Alejandro Tosti bogeyed the final two holes to open the door for Vanderbilt.
Augenstein applied the dagger on 17, recovering from a poor tee shot by knocking down a 10-foot par putt to get his team even with the Gators as he went to the final hole.
The Kentucky native blistered his tee shot up the right side while Tosti’s tee shot clipped the canopy of a tree about 175 yards from the teeing ground, leaving the Argentinian an awkward second shot.
Tosti’s par chip slid by the hole and Augenstein tapped in.
Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, No. 1 in the world amateur ranking, capped off the individual title with a final round 2-under 68.
His 202 total was good for a two-shot win over Oregon’s Wyndham Clark.
McNealy, whose win put him under consideration for an invitation to the 2017 Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial, was the only one of 75 players with all three rounds under par.
“I think this is the culmination of a really productive and disciplined summer,” McNealy said. “I stayed at home mostly and didn’t do much traveling and just tried to work out and get stronger and get ready for the fall.
“I got off to a really good start and got it to 2 under and then made some really good pars on the back nine.”
TCU tied for 13th in the 15-team field, and Chelso Barrett tied for 14th individually at 3 over after a 75. Stefano Mazzoli had the Frogs’ best round Tuesday with a 72.
This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 7:44 PM with the headline "Vanderbilt tops Florida by one shot to win Nike event at Colonial."