2013 CLEMSON MEN’S GOLF 2014
2003 National Champions
Every school has special memories of its teams that have claimed national championships. That is certainly the case with Clemson, who won its fourth in the school’s athletic history on May 30, 2003 when the Tiger golf program won its first NCAA title with a two-shot victory over Oklahoma State at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, OK. Clemson won three national team titles in the 1980s, the football title in 1981, and men’s soccer in 1984 and 1987. All three of those championships were gained in extraordinary circumstances. The football team had finished 6-5 in the previous season and was not ranked in any of the preseason top 20 polls for 1981. Then Danny Ford’s Tigers went a perfect 12-0, the only undefeated team in college football that year, finishing the year with a 22-15 win over perennial favorite Nebraska. The 1984 Clemson soccer team became the first team in any sport in NCAA history to defeat the numbers-four, three, two and one seeds in an NCAA Tournament in winning the national championship. Four years later Dr. I.M. Ibrahim’s team entered the tournament as the number-23 seeded team in the 24-team field, then won the championship in a Final Four played at Clemson’s Riggs Field. Unlike the program’s three previous titles, the Clemson golf team of 2002-03 had been ranked number-one in the nation from the preseason poll, and by a wide margin. Heading into the national tournament at Stillwater, Clemson’s margin over second-ranked Florida in the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking, was equal in computer points to the distance between #2 Florida and the 17th place team, New Mexico.
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“We had a dominating regular season,” said Head Coach Larry Penley when commenting on his 20th and most magical season at Clemson. “We were in every tournament and won five events before the NCAAs at Stillwater.” But, that momentum from the regular season did not carry much weight heading to the national championships because the Tigers were faced with the task of winning the championship on Oklahoma State’s home course, the very challenging Karsten Creek. Many other schools have played host to the golf national championship in recent years, but those programs had not been ranked in the top 10 in the nation entering the event. In fact each of the last two University courses to play host to the event, Ohio State in 2002 and Duke in 2001, did not even have their teams qualify for the national tournament. Oklahoma State entered the tournament ranked fifth in the nation, and was on a hot streak entering the national tournament having recorded five tournament victories in the spring, including the NCAA Central Regional. The Cowboys had won nine national championships, including eight under current coach Mike Holder. “It was a big challenge and a lot of pressure, but this team was mature enough and prepared for it,” said Penley. “We had great leadership from D.J. Trahan and Ben Duncan all year and it carried over to the NCAAs.” Clemson was in or near the lead in each of the first three rounds, never trailing by more than four strokes at the end of any round. Clem-
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