PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.- Charlotte Men’s Golf went toe-to-toe with several of the top teams in the country, ultimately finishing in third place (840, -24) in the competitive field at The Hayt played at Sawgrass Country Club. Three of the top six teams in the nation in #1 Virginia, #2 Auburn and #6 LSU headlined the field that included five ACC teams and four from the SEC.
In the latest national rankings from The Scoreboard, Charlotte stands as the highest ranked team in the American Conference at 21st and the third highest ranked mid major (#10 Pepperdine, #18 New Mexico). The next two teams ranked from the American are Rice (#50) and South Florida (#54).
Charlotte entered the final round with a three-stroke lead and battled back and forth with Auburn and Texas Tech going down the stretch of the back nine in round three. Justin Matthews played a terrific round three, shooting five under par on the first 16 holes to propel Charlotte into contention. A challenging hole 17 proved costly for Matthews and the Niners, as Charlotte finished The Hayt four strokes behind first place Auburn.
The Niners finished ahead of #1 Virginia, #6 LSU, #15 Alabama, and #17 North Carolina.
COACH’S CORNER
“I am certainly proud of the guys and the effort this week,” said Ryan Cabbage. “Anytime you stand toe to toe with the best teams in the country and have a chance to win with just a couple holes to play, you must be doing a lot of good things. Seb Cave was good all week to just miss out on winning by a shot, but this was a quality second place finish for him. Justin Matthews and Frazer Jones had top 20 finishes against a tremendous field. Chase Cline got us off to a good start in round one and Boone was good today in the final round when we needed him as well so we had contributions from all the guys.”
“I know the team scores were pretty low this week, but Sawgrass country club is a good test and we had 12 of our 15 rounds at even par or better this week,” continued Cabbage. “There are lots of good things to take from this event. We would love to have gotten the win, but we have now put ourselves in this position a lot this year with a chance to win in the final round against top five teams in the country, so we’ll just keep working to knock that door down. I know it’s easy if you look at scorecards to see the hiccup that Justin Matthews had on the 17th hole, but we would not have been in the position we were in without him. Justin works hard and gives his all for this team and our program every single time he tees it up. He hit poor tee shots at a bad time today. It happens, but I’ll take him on our team and go compete with him every day.”
Seb Cave (206, -10) finished tied for second place and one stroke from the individual lead. Cave’s best round came on Sunday when he carded a 66 (-6). Justin Matthews and Frazer Jones (212, -4) placed 20th individually. Daniel Boone, Jr. (217, +1) finished the tournament strong with a 70 (-2) while Chase Cline played well in the first two rounds (69, 71) but struggled to find a rhythm on Monday (78, +6).
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Dates: Saturday, Mar. 7 – Monday, Mar.9, 2026
Course: Sawgrass Country Club – Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Format: 54-hole stroke play with the low four scores counted each round for the team total. 18-hole rounds each day.
Scoring: clt49e.rs/TheHayt26
Par/Yardage: 72/ 7,092 Yards
TOP FIVE TEAMS
1st – Auburn (836, -28)
2nd – Texas Tech (838, -26)
3rd – Charlotte (840, -24)
4th – LSU (841, -23)
5th – North Carolina (848, -16)
THE FIELD (Scoreboard Ranking)
Ranked: Virginia [#1], Auburn [#2], LSU [#6], Texas Tech [#11], Alabama [#15], North Carolina [#17], Duke [#20], Charlotte [#21]
Unranked: Liberty, UCF, USF, Clemson, South Carolina, Louisville, Coastal Carolina
CHARLOTTE SCORECARD
T-2nd – Seb Cave (206, -10)
T-20th – Justin Matthews (212, -4)
T-20th – Frazer Jones (212, -4)
T-49th – Daniel Boone, Jr. (217, +1)
T-55th – Chase Cline (218, +2)
NEXT UP
Charlotte Men’s Golf will return to action March 20-22 when they travel to Lake Oconee, Georgia for the Linger Longer Invitational at the Greatwaters Course at Lake Oconee.