On the third hole of his final round, Jacob Bridgeman had a clothing malfunction. Following through on his swing, his belt snapped and broke. Bridgeman was grateful when an ACC official offered up his own belt for him to wear for the remainder of the day.
This wasn’t any ordinary belt, however. It was an expensive belt made of locally sourced alligator from Lake Powell, which lies adjacent to much of the back nine of the Shark’s Tooth Golf Course where the ACC Championship was being held.
Unknowingly at the time, this belt would be an omen.
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As the clock turned to 5:00 p.m., and the sun was beginning its descent, birds were still active in the Florida sun during the Saturday afternoon final round. Bridgeman had just played his 19th hole of the day and 55th in the last 24 hours. He was heading back to the tee box on the 18th hole for a second playoff. He had just narrowly missed a chance to clinch the ACC individual title with a seven-foot birdie putt, allowing himself and North Carolina’s Peter Fountain, the previous year’s individual champion, to both make par.
“I missed it, but it bumped out,” Bridgeman recalled. “I hit a really good putt, so I wasn’t upset at all with that. It just hit something and bumped left. I felt completely confident in my putter, and I had been great with it all week. If I could just get it back near the green, somewhere near the flag, I could make another one.”
Bridgeman would not be denied a second time.
With seemingly all the weight in the world on him, he showed tremendous poise under pressure. Bridgeman striped his drive to begin the second playoff hole right down the middle of the fairway, even further than his first. Fountain would hit his shorter and off to the left of the fairway.
After Fountain overshot the green, Bridgeman again kept his second shot tight and sat within eight feet of another birdie attempt.
“I knew I was going to make that one,” Bridgeman said with a smile. “It was a little bit longer, but I knew I was going to make that one.”
And he did. He nearly walked it in with the ball still rolling toward the cup before it disappeared, clinching the title.
Bridgeman hadn’t paid attention to any scores throughout his final round but came off his final hole thinking he might have won. When he found out there was a chance for a playoff, he immediately headed to the range.
“I had a little more emotion when I…
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