National champs! Top-ranked Auburn men's golf wins program's first national title
The top-ranked Auburn men’s golf team made history on Wednesday afternoon. The Tigers took down Florida State during the match play NCAA finals in Carlsbad, Calif., winning the schools first men’s golf national championship.
The Tigers won 3-2 over the nationally sixth-ranked Seminoles. Auburn finished the season winning their final seven tournaments, including the SEC and NCAA championships, ending on the highest of high notes. Auburn won 10 tournaments this season, having not lost a tournament since March.
Both Auburn and Florida State were participating in their first match play finals.
Auburn reached the match play portion of the tournament only once before, making the semifinals in 2018 after winning the SEC Championship. This Auburn team also won the SEC Championship and again, used that momentum to reach not only the semifinals, but the finals, ultimately winning the national championship.
The victory gives Auburn University 23 total national championships and the school’s first national title since the Equestrian team in 2019. In fact, the Equestrian team won five national titles from 2011 to 2019. The men’s golf title is the first non-Equestrian national championship since football won the national championship in 2010.
Men’s Golf now joins Equestrian, Football, Men’s Swimming and Diving, Women’s Swimming and Diving and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field as sports that have won a national championship at Auburn.
Jackson Koivun, Brendan Valdes and J.M. Butler won their finals’ matches, providing Auburn with the needed three points. Koivun won 5&4, Valdes won 4&3, and Butler won 2&1. Carson Bacha and Josiah Gilbert fell in their matches, with Bacha losing 1UP and Gilbert losing 2&1 despite late surges to close the gap.
Butler won the anchor match to seal the championship, beating Florida State’s highest-ranked player in Luke Clanton, who is the eighth-ranked amateur in the world. Butler, the 38th-ranked amateur, never trailed in any of his three matches during the quarterfinals, semifinals or finals.
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Valdes, the 23rd-ranked amateur, beat Florida State’s Frederik Kjettrup, who is Florida State’s second-highest-ranked player and the No. 13-ranked amateur in the world.
Koivun, the 4th-ranked amateur in the world, the Ben Hogan and Fred Haskins Award winner, and Auburn’s other All-American along with Valdes, dominated his opponent down the stretch. Koivun won holes 9, 10, 12, 13 and 14 to close his match out in impressive fashion.
Following four rounds of stroke play to start the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers earned the No. 6 seed heading into bracket play, while Florida State earned the No. 5 seed heading into bracket play. The NCAA Tournament started with 30 overall teams before narrowing to eight after four rounds of stroke play.
Auburn beat nationally ninth-ranked Virginia in the quarterfinals and 31st-ranked Ohio State in the semifinals to reach the finals. Florida State beat fourth-ranked North Carolina in the quarterfinals and 17th-ranked Georgia Tech in the semifinals to reach the finals.
This season, Auburn had already faced 23 of their 29 NCAA Championship opponents and boasted a 39-3-1 head-to-head record against them. Auburn finished behind North Carolina and Oklahoma and tied with Tennessee.
