LA QUINTA, Calif. — When the Vanderbilt Commodores made plans for their first trip to the Coachella Valley to play in the Prestige men’s college golf tournament, head coach Scott Limbaugh had an idea what the experience would include. It wasn’t wind, cold and hail.
“It’s funny, this is our first time out here, and we came here thinking we signed up for 85 and sunny and light and variable winds,” Limbaugh laughed after this team survived another difficult day of weather in the desert for a victory in the Prestige tournament.
A day after play was suspended in the second round by 30 mph winds and cold temperatures, the 24 teams in the field faced the same conditions Wednesday, with strong winds and temperatures in the mid-50s. But somehow Vanderbilt produced 14-under par score for the third round to run away with a 10-shot victory over Oregon.
“It was hailing when we teed off (Wednesday),” said Limbaugh, whose team is ranked 20th in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. “We had 40 mph winds yesterday. We had a north wind, we had a west wind. But the guys, I’m just proud of them. They fought through adversity. We had a great first round and a very tough second round. We just wanted to have an opportunity to still be in the golf tournament.”
“The guys just got rolling today.”
Vandy is the 2022 The Prestige champs. ⚓️🌟#AnchorDownhttps://t.co/XeGZozaCa3
— Vanderbilt Men’s Golf (@VandyMGolf) February 24, 2022
Vanderbilt’s team score of 14-under 270 on the par-71 Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta was one of just two sub-par rounds by any team during the three days of the event. The round was 15 shots better than Oregon, which finished second after a 1-over 285 third round. Vanderbilt won with a 16-over 868 score for 54 holes, with Oregon at 26-over 878,
Kansas was alone in third at 29 over, followed by sixth-ranked Texas Tech at 32 over par.
Low scores in bad weather
Gordon Sargent led Vanderbilt with a 6-under 65 on Wednesday, while Reid Davenport shot 66 and Cole Sherwood shot 68. Matthew Riedel shot 71 under the five-play, four-count format, and Jackson Van Paris shot 75.
In the individual competition among the 24 teams, Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech managed to match or break par all three days in the unusual weather that saw snow capping the nearby San Jacinto Mountains. Aberg’s 3-under 210 total included a 70 in the third round, giving him a two-shot victory over Carson Barry of Oregon, who also shot 70 Wednesday. Davenport was third at 214 and Sherwood was fourth at 215.
In a separate individual competition played in conjunction with The Prestige, freshman Ian Maspat of Pepperdine scored his first college victory for the Waves. Playing on the par-72 Coral Mountain Golf Club just a few miles from PGA West, Maspat shot a 4-under 68 Wednesday for a 54-hole total of 6-under 210, five shots better than Zubair Firdaus of San Jose State and Jackson Fretty of Princeton.
“I just knew that par was a good score in that tough wind,” said Maspat, 18 and from San Diego. “It was blowing at least 30 at some point, and I was just thinking par is going to get it done. And not try to press for birdies. That would just put me in trouble.”
Maspat held at least a share of the lead each of the three days of the individual event.
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