Vanderbilt after NCI title
(Vanderbilt Athletics Photo)
FORT WORTH, TX (October 4, 2016) -- It wasn't an easy final day at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational. With the wind blowing Colonial Country Club showed its teeth but in the end No. 9 Vanderbilt was able win a back and forth affair to claim the top spot. Vanderbilt began the day at 9-under but fell to 1-under to finish one-stroke in front of eighth ranked Florida.
Both Vanderbilt, Florida (E) and third place No. 12 Georgia (+11) posted a final round best 8-over team score on a day when the average score was +13.4.
Freshman John Augenstein was the lead Commodore as he finished in fifth place and 2-under. Following rounds of 66-69, Augenstein shot a final day 3-over 73. The 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur semifinalist birdied three holes during the last round.
Senior Matthias Schwab finished tied for eighth at 1-over while sophomore Patrick Martin and junior Theo Humphrey finished 3-over to share 21st for Vanderbilt.
"It was an extremely difficult day of golf today with high winds,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh. “We knew before we teed off that it was going to be tough. We always tell the guys that when things are hard it makes you better. Any time you are in the position we were in, with the lead heading into the final round, you know you will learn a lot about the team. That can be in winning or not and this week we won which was awesome and a great step for this team. I felt like our guys showed a lot of resiliency as we had the lead and then lost the lead, before ultimately regaining it and making the winning shots down the stretch."
Stanford senior Maverick McNealy claimed a historical victory on Tuesday afternoon as he tied Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers with 11 individual titles. McNealy, 8-under, posted rounds of 68-66-68 to emerge victorious by two-strokes over Oregon's Wyndham Clark.
During his final round 2-under 68, McNealy, the top-ranked amateur in the world, provided some fireworks on the front nine with four birdies and two bogeys. The birdies came on Nos. 2, 3, 7 and 8. After turning in 2-under 33, McNealy, who has now won his season opening tournament three consecutive years, carded nine pars on the inward side.
"Hats off to Maverick on his 11th individual win, which puts him up there with the all-time greats. Hopefully, there are more wins to come," Stanford head coach Conrad Ray told Stanford Athletics.
Alejandro Tosti finished third at 4-under, USC's Sean Crocker placed fourth at 3-under and Augenstein was fifth.
Behind the front three teams, the top-five was rounded out by No. 11 Oklahoma (+15) in fourth and Oregon (+19) in fifth.
-Vanderbilt and Stanford Athletics contributed to this story
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