Just across A1A from the infamous 17th at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course sits another penultimate hole that packed a punch on Monday.
Regularly the eighth on Sawgrass Country Club’s West nine, the hole plays as the par-4 17th for the Hayt Invitational, one of the top men’s college events of the spring and held right before the PGA Tour’s annual Players Championship.
Charlotte entered the Hayt ranked No. 21 in the nation, though eighth among the 16-team field. And yet, head coach Ryan Cabbage’s squad led top-6 programs Auburn and LSU by four shots with 18 holes to play.
The 49ers’ advantage was a few shots over Auburn with Charlotte’s best player, 75th-ranked Justin Matthews on the 17th tee. Matthew was 5 under and bogey-free through his first 16 holes, while teammate Seb Cave was battling No. 1 amateur Jackson Koivun of Auburn for the individual title behind him.
Water guards the left side of the hole, which ranked fourth in terms of difficulty on Monday, while out of bounds comes in quickly down the right side. With the wind humming from left to right, Matthews hit three tee balls out of play. He ended up carding a sextuple-bogey 10 on the hole, dropping to 1 over on his round, though still counting.
Suddenly, Charlotte was trailing Auburn by three while also dropping two shots behind Texas Tech, already in the clubhouse. The 49ers went on to finish third, four back of Auburn, which received a closing birdie from Koivun.
Cabbage said afterward that Matthews was doing fine.
“Guy plays his tail off for us every single day,” Cabbage added, “and we wouldn’t have been in the position we were in without him.”
Koivun closed in 5-under 67 to finish at 11 under, a shot better than Cave, who capped his 69 in par-par, and Duke’s William Love. Texas Tech’s Connor Graham tied Virginia’s Ben James for fourth, two shy of Koivun, after tripling his last hole.
Koivun’s victory marked his third in four spring starts. He’s now the clear favorite to win his second Haskins Award as national player of the year.