Auburn left paradise with a new trophy and some new program records and NCAA records in the men’s golf history book.
Shooting 77-under, the Tigers ran away with the tournament after entering Day 3 with a three-stroke lead over Stanford. Auburn ended up shooting 30-under on Saturday, eight shots better than the next team and finishing 13 shots ahead of second place Texas, who finished at 64-under.
Starting the tournament on Thursday with a program record 32-under day as a team, that also is the second-lowest round in NCAA history. Auburn’s finishing score of 77-under tied the NCAA record for the lowest score in a tournament by a team.
“Obviously a fun week,” head coach Nick Clinard told Auburn Undercover. “Anytime you get a chance to spend time on the Big Island in Hawaii with the guys it’s just a lot of connectivity and team bonding. We had a good time though. We did a lot of golf stuff — played different places throughout the week and then kind of the start of our tournament prep once we got to Mauna Lani.
“Super proud of the guys, they played great. Obviously look at the scores and they were resilient all week. Came in with a chip on their shoulder and they were determined to prove that they were going to be a contender this spring. Obviously Jackson Koivun makes golf look easy at times. But just really proud of the rest of the guys, Cayden Pope and Josiah Gilbert to bounce back today and shoot 65. Billy Davis with a 63 today. The two freshmen, too, I can’t speak highly enough about Jake Albert and Logan Reilly. They just keep getting better. Working really hard on their golf swings technically and they just keep improving.”
As Clinard mentioned, it almost goes without introduction now for Koivun — Auburn’s superstar since he was a freshman and now in his junior year, back for another season after deferring his PGA Tour card that he’s already secured through the PGA Tour U Accelerated program.
Koivun fired off rounds of 62 and 62 (10-under) on the first two days of the tournament, which broke Tiger Woods’ 36-hole NCAA scoring record set back in 1996. He finished with a round of five-under (67) on Saturday to shoot 25-under, breaking the Auburn tournament scoring record by seven strokes. He finished the tournament with one bogey, 24 birdies, an eagle and 28 pars.
It was the sixth career individual tournament win for Koivun.
“I went all 54 holes with him and the first round he looked like a robot,” Clinard said. “I don’t think he missed a shot. The second round he missed two greens and he chipped in both times, so it was kind of a video game. (Saturday) he honestly did not have his best stuff physically, he really fought threw it. That showed how good he is just to fight through it mentally and emotionally. To make just one bogey all week, that’s phenomenal golf.”
Auburn put together a fall season with a few lackluster finishes, but ended with a win at The Clerico. Now the spring begins with a win, as the No. 5 ranked Tigers kickstart things into high gear moving forward. It’s a quick turnaround for the team with the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Florida, on Feb. 14.
They’ll look to carry the momentum from Hawaii to Gainesville — but it won’t be easy with the travel schedule.
“I think it’s huge,” Clinard said. “Coming off the fall you’ve got no seniors, freshmen are trying to figure out who they are and who I am as a coach and how we operate and what our standards are and all that. There’s just a lot that comes into play with that and I think as we got through the fall and ended up in Southern Hills and won that golf tournament that gave them a little bit of a boost in confidence. We went and prepared for this spring pretty well in January and then I think the freshmen are playing a little more like sophomores would play right now.
“I think it’ll hopefully be a springboard for the rest of the semester. But we’ve got a quick turnaround, we’ve got to get back — we’re in Kona right now — and we’ll get back Sunday afternoon. Then we’ve got Super Bowl Sunday and then we leave Thursday morning for Gainesville. They’ve got to take care of their bodies and take care of their school work.”