NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Eight minutes. Gordon Sargent estimates that’s about the time that elapsed between his final putt in the final round of stroke play during this year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship and the start of a four-way playoff to decide the individual national championship.
Eight minutes, give or take, to push away thoughts of a missed putt on the 18th hole that would have clinched the title without a playoff. The freshman hadn’t been nervous standing over the putt. He’d had a good read on the putt. He’d thought the ball was going in from the moment it left his putter. Watching nearby, Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh had too.
Instead, the ball slid by the hole, leaving Sargent and three competitors tied for first place.
Mind you, the individual title wasn’t Sargent’s main goal when he arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona, for the tournament this past May. College golf is primarily a team sport, and the trophy that matters most is the one that’s handed to the champion team. Yet by the start of the fourth and final round of stroke play, Sargent and his teammates were already all but assured of qualifying for the head-to-head match play round that decides the team championship. That job was done.
The individual title, awarded to the golfer with the best score through stroke play, was still there for the taking. And if there is something to win, whether it be bragging rights in a round with his dad and brother or an NCAA individual title, Sargent’s competitiveness takes over.
Not much more than eight minutes after he walked off the green at the end of regulation, he again teed up his ball on the same hole—No. 18 was the playoff hole. Rather than play a conservative shot and wait for the other golfers to make a mistake, the freshman ditched the cautious approach and pulled out his driver. The shot that followed will live in Vanderbilt lore, at least if Limbaugh’s text message history is a good first draft of history.
“It sent a message to everybody on that tee box that ‘I’m about to go take this thing,’” Limbaugh recalled of Sargent’s drive. “I don’t know what they said on TV, but the second he hit that drive, I had about 25 text messages from former players, just saying ‘OMG’ or going crazy about the ball speed. That swing, and then the courage he showed with the wedge to that pin—if you’re not there, you can’t understand what a big boy golf shot…
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