Texas State wins inaugural National Golf Invitational in a Kentucky Derby-style horserace in the desert

From where Shane Howell was sitting, Sunday at the National Golf Invitational felt like the Kentucky Derby.

“Somehow, some way we ended up on top of the board,” said Howell, head coach at Texas State.

Scoring swings are a reality of college golf, but the final round at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, was something else entirely. Five teams landed within two shots of each other at the top of the leaderboard with Texas State, at 7 under for the week, narrowly beating Penn State and Wyoming, who tied for second at 6 under. Ball State and Stetson tied for fourth at 5 under. All five teams had the lead at some point on Sunday.

Howell normally isn’t a serial Golfstat refresher while he coaches, but Sunday was a different story. Howell checked the leaderboard after the first six holes to find his counters 9 over for the day. He checked it again after 12 holes and saw the beginning of a comeback.

🏆 National Golf Invitational Champions! @TxStateMGolf pic.twitter.com/47hKvq8QM3

— Lance Ringler (@GolfweekRingler) May 22, 2023

Howell went to work on the par-5 16th hole, which Texas State played in 2 under thanks to birdies from Marcelo Garza and Jack Burke. Howell’s assistant Logan Davis was up ahead at the par-3 17th where the team struggled, counting two bogeys and a double and losing their lead to Wyoming.

By the time Garza, in Texas State’s anchor position, was standing over his approach at the par-4 18th, Howell was next to him. Garza hit his drive right into some high brush but got free relief from an old sprinkler head and punched down the fairway to 90 yards.

“I met him down there,” Howell said. “He said, ‘Hey, where do we stand?’ I said, ‘Bogey gets us the title.’ So he hit it up on the middle of the green about 35 feet and two-putted.”

Ball State was one of those teams circling the lead and while the Cardinals ultimately came up two shots short of Texas State, sophomore Kash Bellar became the inaugural NGI champion.

Every time Bellar saw Ball State head coach Mike Fleck on the course on Sunday, he asked for a status report.

“He would just tell us, ‘Hey, we’re ok, doing alright, falling behind,’” Bellar said.

Bellar’s final-round card wasn’t flashy – he made three birdies and three bogeys for an even-par 72 that left him with a one-shot win at 7 under. He managed birdie on the driveable par-4 14th from a greenside bunker, which gave him a big momentum boost and then sealed the title by rolling in a 15-footer straight uphill for birdie on the par-4 closing hole.

The NGI title marks Bellar’s first college title, and his first win in golf since the 2021 Indiana High School State Championship.

“I’ve been close a lot this spring,” Bellar said. “It was really nice to get it done this week.”

Being the first is especially sweet, and something Bellar had just begun to think about after the conclusion of the tournament even though the possibility had crossed his lips before he ever traveled with the team to Arizona.

“I forget which buddy I told,” Bellar said. “I was telling him that this is the first time there has ever been an NIT for golf. How would it be to be the first one to win it?”

Texas State will process that, too. The NGI is the team’s third title this season, which is an exceptional number for a team that struggled with injury as much as the Bobcats did. At some point during the year, three of Howell’s five starters were out with injury. That includes Garza, who played the first tournament of the year, sat out the rest of the fall with a wrist injury and didn’t start playing again until January. That made it fitting for Garza to be the one to clinch the NGI title.

“They’ve had a great year,” Howell said. “We felt grateful all week to be there because we felt like we’ve had a good year and for Lance (Ringler, of Golfweek) to host this tournament was really kind of a second life for us. They took advantage of it.”

Like a lot of teams, Texas State felt like it had some unfinished business after the Sun Belt Conference Championship, especially after a disappointing final round that left them short of the conference match-play bracket.

“We were really grateful to have another chance to come and play,” Howell said.

Before they arrived in the Arizona desert, Howell spoke to his team about turning the NGI into a springboard to the next level. A wild Sunday afternoon leaderboard seems like ample preparation for anything next season could throw at Texas State.

“We feel like we’re a regional team,” Howell said, “so we’re like this week kind of starts our climb into next year. We kind of used that as motivation getting ready for the tournament. Win, lose or draw, we were just going to try to make sure we finished on a good note.”

Editor’s note: In May 2022, the NCAA announced it would allow schools to play in one season-ending event, similar to college basketball’s NIT. By July 2022, the inaugural National Golf Invitational was created in a partnership between Golfweek and Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, with Golfweek’s Lance Ringler serving as the Invitational’s tournament director.