Men’s Golf Win at Home

In a tournament moved around by severe Nashville Spring weather, the Vanderbilt Commodores steadied their ship and came away victorious on Sunday.

This past weekend, Vanderbilt Men’s Golf hosted the Mason Rudolph Invitational, their annual home tournament (the Women’s team host their tournament of the same name in the Fall.) Sixteen teams (with six teams from around the state) teed off at Legends Golf Club in the volatile Middle TN Springtime. The Commodores claimed victory after a shaky first round, defeating No. 20 ranked Liberty and No. 25 ranked Hunter’s Orange. (Full leaderboard here)

The last round was moved to an early Sunday morning shotgun state after severe weather was predicted for the day. Teams teed off at 8:30 only to have the tournament halted before noon. When play resumed, the ‘Dores hosted their colors and sailed circles around the competition like they were the upstart Brits taking carving up the high seas against the vaunted Spanish Armada in 1588. (I’m going to see how many nautical allusions I can make)

Patrick Martin went full #LiveUnderPar with three rounds in the red, firing 70-67-66. PMart is the No. 21 ranked individual in the NCAA, but at Legends he was the Captain of the Vanderbilt fleet. Unfortunately, he didn’t shoot the lowest round on his team and was not the lowest three day total in the tournament.

Will Gordon shot 63 (!) in the second round, besting his first round score by ten shots. Gorodn’s 63 came with two bogeys. That’s kind of like running a sub 10 second 100m while stumbling out of the blocks. It is to be expected, though, as Gordon is the No. 14 ranked NCAA player.

I had intended on covering the tournament in person, but the time change and weather prevented my from getting out there. If I had, I am sure Gordon would have said, “Yeah, WrestleMania is this weekend, so in its honor, I decided to come off the top of the mast with an atomic elbow onto the field.”

Western Kentucky’s Billy Tom Sargent was the tournament’s medalist and also the winner of most appropriate and predictable name for the University he attends. He shot 201 with three consecutive rounds in the 60’s, posting 69-65-67.

Sargent definitely did not say about his round, “I’m not ranked in the NCAA Top250 players, but it looks like I’m the real Legend here today, sailors.”

The Commodores have one more tournament, and Easter week two day-er in West Point, MS, the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship hosted by Mississippi State. No word yet if their is a water passage to the course so the team can take a ship and tie up or if they will take the traditional land route. Either way, I suspect they will fire the canons, commandeer and maraud the tournament leaving with the trophy as booty.