HUTCHISON, Kan. (May 28, 2014) -- In the end, the best team prevailed as top-ranked Alabama won the 2014 NCAA Men's Golf Championship Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Oklahoma State.
Wyndham Clark was the lone Oklahoma State golfer to win his match, topping Alabama's Tom Lovelady to avoid the Tide sweep. But, boy was the Tide dominant.
Trey Mullinax was a 2 and 1 victor over Ian Davis, winning the 17th to end it all. He converted a 20-footer for eagle from the fringe to earn the clinching point.
Mullinax embraced coach Jay Seawell before his teammates mobbed him in celebration.
"I was just focusing on speed and trying to get the ball as close to the hole as I could, and it went in," Mullinax told NCAA.com. "It's a dream come true. It felt good. I'm not going to lie."
Bobby Wyatt provided the biggest fireworks, using a hole-in-one early in his match against the red-hot Talor Gooch to ride to a 3 and 2 victory. Wyatt, a 2013 U.S. Walker Cup team member, aced the par-3 2nd and took the lead from Gooch for good.
Robby Shelton, who, earlier in the day, was named the Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award winner by the Golf Coaches Association of America, knocked off Oklahoma State's Zachary Olsen. Shelton won the 16th and held off the reigning Southern Amateur champion for a 1-up victory.
And in the most anticipated match of the day, Cory Whitsett bested Jordan Niebrugge 2 and 1. The match was all square heading into the 13th before Whitsett won two straight and held on. The competitors were, of course, teammates in last year's Walker Cup and are two of the most victorious players in the amateur game.
It's the second straight national championship for the Tide, who were led by the nation's most talented group of seniors in Mullinax, Whitsett and Wyatt.
"I cried three times before we played today," Seawell told NCAA.com. "This is their legacy. They played for their legacy, to be known as one of the great teams in all of golf history."
ABOUT THE NCAA Division I Championship
30 teams and 6 individuals not on a qualifying
team make up the field for the championship of
NCAA
Division I women's golf.
After 72 holes of stroke play, the individual
champion is crowned, and the low 8 teams advance
to
match play to determine the team champion.
View Complete Tournament Information