ACU takes first team title of season; Glanton 3rd overall

Final Results

SPRING, Texas – Freshman Alex Clouse eagled the 18th hole just before junior Garrett Glanton dropped a birdie putt on the final hole Tuesday afternoon to give the ACU Wildcats the team championship at the Colin Montgomerie-HBU Huskies Intercollegiate golf tournament, the program's first tournament win since February 2015.
 
The Wildcats – who entered Tuesday's final round one stroke off the pace set by Bradley – shot a 2-over-par 290 Tuesday, three shots better than the 5-over-par 293 the Braves posted. That gave the Wildcats a three-day total of 7-under-par 857, two shots clear of second-place Bradley, which finished at 5-under-par 859.
 
UT-Rio Grande Valley was third at 1-over-par 865, followed by Northern Colorado at 3-over-par 867 and North Dakota State and Houston Baptist tied for fifth at 5-over-par 869. ACU's other Southland Conference counterparts – Central Arkansas, Incarnate Word and Southeastern Louisiana – finished eighth, ninth and tied for 10th, respectively.
 
The last time the Wildcats took home a team tournament title was Feb. 16, 2015, when they won the UT-Pan American Bronc Intercollegiate in Edinburg, defeating a field that included just four other teams: UTPA (which no longer exists, having combined with UT-Brownsville in 2015 to create UTRGV), Loyola-Chicago, Arkansas State and Prairie View A&M. That was the second win of the season for the Wildcats, who also won the Charles Coody Intercollegiate in September 2014 against a field that included two junior colleges and one NAIA squad.
 
Tuesday's victory was a complete win against an entirely NCAA Division I field.
 
"This is the third win we've had since I became the head coach," Tom Shaw said, "but really does feel like the real thing this time. Those other two felt a little bit like preseason games. But this is big because we beat some teams from our own conference that have the upper hand on us the last few years, so that in itself makes it extra sweet."
 
But the victory wasn't clinched until the final two holes.
 
After Glanton – who finished third in the overall standings at 7-under-par – bogeyed the 17th, the Wildcats' lead was down to one stroke. But just before the bogey,  Clouse – the freshman from Flower Mound – stepped up and striped a drive right down the middle of the No. 18 fairway, setting himself to try and go for the green in two.
 
He ripped a six iron to within 25 feet of the cup and dropped the putt for a huge eagle. Following his bogey, Glanton answered in a big way with a solid drive and an 8 iron into the green. He two-putted for birdie and the team championship with the rest of his teammates and their parents gathered around the No. 18 green.
 
"We haven't been in this position very much, so this was very exciting for our guys, Shaw said. "We had three of our guys (Chase Allison, Bryce Dooley and Kade Miller) standing around the 18^th green as Alex and Garrett were finishing, so those two – who weren't keeping up with the scores – knew something big was happening. Alex's eagle set the tone, and he gave it a little mini-Phil Mickelson jump when he made the eagle, and that got Garrett in the right frame of mind to attack the 18^th fairway."
 
Glanton led the Wildcats with his first top-three finish of the season and best finish since his freshman season when he tied for third in the rain-shortened Atchafalaya Intercollegiate. Glanton posted scores of 67-71-71 (209) to go 7-under-par, taking third behind Houston's Pryce Beshoory (204) and Alexander Frances (205).
 
Freshman Chase Allison and Clouse both recorded top-15 finishes as they tied for 11th with scores of 215 each. Allison carded rounds of 73-70-72 for his best finish so far this season, while Clouse went 73-68-74 for his second top-15 finish.
 
Dooley and Miller rounded out the scoring five for the Wildcats as Dooley went 6-over-par 222 (75-70-77) tied for 36th, and Miller tied for 51st with scores of 76-78-73 (227).
 
Nothing gets any easier for the Wildcats, who return to action at the Bob Sitton Invitational in Dallas (March 12-14) before venturing to the West Coast to play in The Goodwin, one of collegiate golf's most prestigious tournaments. The tournament will be played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco and figures to feature several of the top teams in the country, including defending team national champion Oklahoma.
 
"This certainly gives us the confidence we're going to need because we'll have to play even better golf the rest of the season, but in the next two events especially," Shaw said. "We're going to have a very young team at both of those events, but any team win is a good one and always gives you momentum and confidence moving forward."