Tigers’ golf team has tight focus heading into NCAA regional

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY — Look at the results, and you’d think Clemson was playing its best golf of the season at the perfect time. After all, the Tigers won the U.S. Collegiate and finished second at the ACC tournament heading into the NCAA Northeast Regional, which starts today at Galloway (N.J.) National Golf Club.

Veteran head coach Larry Penley suggests otherwise.

A narrow miss at the ACC tournament, which saw the Tigers grab the lead from Georgia Tech with five holes left and then give it back for a three shot defeat, left Penley mending his team’s psyche.

“My big job with them right now is to get them to relax,” he said this week. “They were a very discouraged bunch after the ACCs. I think they knew we could have played better. There wasn’t any one particular shot or hole, but the whole week at the ACCs we felt we can play better than this. And we never did. We kind of had spurts of (good play) but never took off.”

Penley hopes for more consistency this weekend. Clemson is the top seed in the 14-team regional, which also features No.2 seed Alabama, third-seeded Illinois, fourth-seeded Tennessee and fifth-seeded Wake Forest. The top five teams qualify for the NCAA Nationals May 25-30 in Toledo, Ohio.

“For us to be successful these last two tournaments (the regional and NCAA Nationals) we’re going to have to get after it, going to have to do some consistently good things out there,” Penley said. “We can’t do it in spurts, which means our focus is going to have to be at a premium.”

Clemson has the team makeup for a strong regional finish and national run. All five starters are either juniors or seniors, led by junior Kyle Stanley, one of three finalists for the Hogan Award, given to collegiate golf’s top player. He plans to turn pro sometime this summer, forgoing his final year of college.

David May, one of two seniors along with Anderson native Phillip Mollica, tied for the top score at the ACC Championships. And junior Ben Martin was the ACC’s Golfer of the Month in February.

“I think it’s huge to have two seniors and three juniors, just because we’ve played a lot of the same tournaments in the last three, four years,” May said. “Just for having an extra look at the course, having that experience, it’s huge.”

Some coaches might feel pressure to win with such an experienced group, but Penley isn’t among them. He notes that Clemson has won plenty of unexpected titles in his 26 years as the Tigers’ head coach.

“What I do feel, is that this will be the last time this bunch is together, and they want to put their stamp on our program,” he said. “They’ve seen the past successes of some really good teams, really good individual players and how that momentum has carried over to a pro career.

“I think they feel, ‘We’ve been together long enough, it’s time for us to go ahead and get it done.’ I think they want to put their stamp on our golf program.”

That’s why the focus this weekend is winning, not just qualifying for nationals.

“Once you start focusing on just qualifying, that fifth spot becomes the first spot,” Stanley said. “Our goal is to go out there and win.”

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