College golf: Play in the Prestige then win an NCAA title, it's a pattern
When Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt won a four-man playoff for the NCAA Division 1 men’s golf championships this week, it might have gone unnoticed by desert golf fans that Sargent recently played in the desert.
Sargent was one of the players on the Vanderbilt team that won the Prestige college event in February at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West. While Sargent finished tied for 16th the week of the Prestige, the freshman played some of his best golf of the year to win the NCAA title.
Success at both the Prestige and the NCCA Tournament for individuals and teams is nothing new for the desert event, which started in 2000 as a tournament focused on academic schools rather than top golf schools.
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In fact, five of the last six NCAA team champions have kicked off their spring season with trips to La Quinta to play in the Prestige at PGA West. While only one of those teams won both the Prestige and the NCAA title in the same year, that winning streak could continue this week. Three of the final eight teams in the NCAA match-play bracket this week, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine and Texas Tech, played in the Prestige just three months ago.
Here’s a look back at teams who recently used the Prestige as a springboard to the NCAA title in Division 1:
Pepperdine, 2021
Pepperdine, coached by former Palm Desert High School star Michael Beard, probably would have been the favorite to win the 2020 NCAA championship. But the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out NCAA championships that spring, so the Waves had to wait another year. Pepperdine finished third at the 2021 Prestige, one shot behind the co-champions Arizona and North Carolina. But the Waves showed they were an elite men’s golf program and went on to win the NCAA championship in 2021.
Stanford, 2019
Stanford was a long-time co-host of the Prestige and still has plenty to do with the desert tournament. Head coach Conrad Ray’s team didn’t look like potential NCAA champions when they played in the Prestige in 2019, finishing sixth, 38 shots behind runaway winner LSU. But by May, Stanford pulled off a strong qualifying run, made the match-play bracket of eight teams and walked away with the Division 1 championship.
Oklahoma State, 2018
The Cowboys were a kind of juggernaut for a few years in college golf, with talented players like Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff on the team. Oklahoma State showed their strength with a win at the 2018 Prestige, though by just one shot over a strong Pepperdine squad. The Cowboys went on to an expected victory in the NCAA championship, and it certainly looked like they would repeat in 2019 with Hovland and Wolff back on the team. But it was Stanford that derailed that dream.
Oklahoma, 2017
At the time, Oklahoma was a rising powerhouse in men’s golf under coach Ryan Hybl, but perhaps not a team that many took seriously as a championship contender in Division 1. But a third-place finish at the 2017 Prestige in a field that included Pepperdine, Stanford and defending Division 1 champion LSU should have been a hint. The Sooners went on to win the championship over Oregon.
LSU, 2015
LSU has been one of the most successful teams in the history of the Prestige, winning the title in both 2016 and 2017. But it was the 2015 team that won the NCAA title for the Tigers. Earlier that year in La Quinta, LSU, with a team that didn’t produce PGA Tour stars, finished fourth in the Prestige, 10 shots behind winners Arizona State, which featured future PGA Tour stars Jon Rahm and Grayson Murray.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: College golf: Play in the Prestige then win an NCAA title, it's a pattern
