BYU men’s golf marched down to Houston Oaks Country Club & Retreat in Houston Oct. 7-9 and went 5-0 in the Big 12 Match Play Tournament to take first place.
Last year’s tournament was not as nice to the Cougars as they wound up finishing a measly ninth place. This time around, they showed complete dominance after coming off of back-to-back fourth place finishes in the Bearcat and Blessings Collegiate Invitationals.
On the first day, they took down Houston 3-1-1 in the morning and West Virginia 4-1-0 in the afternoon. The next day was just as much of a breeze as they beat Utah 3-1-1 in the morning and Kansas 3-1-1 in the afternoon.
The perfect start to the Championship Match👏👏 pic.twitter.com/eo1yR4uDWI
— BYU Men's Golf (@BYUmgolf) October 9, 2024
The championship round on day three started off with an absolute bang for BYU. Already coming into the day as the only undefeated team to this point, there was no turning back after senior Cole Ponich holed out the first hole for eagle. This was all the momentum the rest of the team needed to finish the tournament strong and raise the trophy in the end.
One element about this tournament that is different from the rest of them is the format of it. Junior Tyson Shelley talked about the impact of what this format was and did for the team.
“My favorite part about the Big 12 Match Play is being able to compete with my teammates in a match play format,” Shelley said. “We don’t get to play a lot of events that use this format, so it makes this tournament really fun.”
The togetherness of the team certainly helped out his play as he was the only player for the Cougars to win all his matches with a 5-0-0 record. None of his matches were that close as his closest one was a three and two finish on the morning of day two, and a seven and five finish on day one in the afternoon being his biggest blowout.
Junior Simon Kwon ended with a 4-1 record for the tournament. He knew this team had to prove what they were capable of through those three days.
“This win means everything to me,” Kwon said. “This team is capable of anything. Going out this week and proving to everyone that we can compete with the best teams is exactly what we need for the rest of the season.”
The rest of the competitors for BYU were the aforementioned Ponich and sophomores Peter Kim and Angus Klintworth. The Cougars held their own with Ponich producing a 3-1-1 record, Kim finishing with a 3-0-2 record and Klintworth ending up with a 2-3-0 record.
Peter Kim tied the match after being 1-down to his Kansas opponent on the 18th hole.👏 pic.twitter.com/78dLwgfILc
— BYU Men's Golf (@BYUmgolf) October 9, 2024
Outside of Ponich’s hole out in the championship round, Kim proved that he has that clutch gene in him. Down by one on the final hole of his match against Kansas, he holed out for eagle on his approach shot on the fourth hole to bring him to a tie and keep the goose egg in the loss column.
"I am so impressed with each one of the guys on the team," coach Bruce Brockbank said. "So many great shots right when we needed them to win. Great win for our team."
The Cougars will look to ride the wave of this win on Oct. 21-23 when they play their final tournament of the calendar year at Bayonet Golf Club in Monterey, California to compete in the Leadership and Golf Collegiate.