Ole Miss golf 2018: The GAME OF THORNBERRIES jets to Hawaii to finish fall season

Red Cup Rebellion remains, for yet another season, in its truest and purest of forms … as a golf blog. RCR raises its handicap to again let Bunkie Perkins under the ropes to follow the Ole Miss Golf Team during their Fall 2018 season. This feature will preview the tournaments, the courses, the Ole Miss golfers, and the field each week, and as has become canon for this review, cover in great detail the many exploits of THE BY GOD NUMBER ONE AMATEUR GOLFER IN THE ENTIRE KNOWN UNIVERSE, THE 2017 NCAA GOLFING CHAMPION AND NUMBER ONE COLLEGE GOLFER IN THE SEVEN KINGDOMS ... LORD BRADEN THORNBERRY, FROM CLUBHOUSE OXFORD, FIRST OF HIS NAME, KING OF THE 19th HOLE AND THE FIRST TEE, MAKER OF BIRDIES, THE BREAKER OF PARS, THE RULER AND PROTECTOR OF AN EXPEDITED PACE OF PLAY … LONG MAY HE DRIVE.

The last time we saw our heroes:

Our golfing Rebels made their way to Music City earlier this month to potentially tune up the field in the Franklin American Mortgage Intercollegiate at The Grove in Franklin, Tenn. It was the third event in two weeks for the squad, and the fatigue of the travel and competitive golf over that stretch may have finally caught up with the team, as they crossed the line in fifth place for the week with the gas tank firmly on E.

The event started off well enough for the Rebs, firing a -4 cumulative score for Round 1. That result left them in second, one back of Day 1 leader Kennesaw State. OUR MOST GRACIOUS GOLFING LORD had one of his rare off days on Day 1, carding a +4 (76), but thankfully, the rest of the team was there to pick up where LORD THORNBERRY usually leads off. Cecil “Lil Precious” Wegener continued his solid fall play with a first round -3 (69). Redshirt freshman Charlie Miller backed that up with a -2 (70) round of his own. “The Pledge” Jackson Suber came in at E (72), and Senior Josh Seiple, fresh off a great performance at the Marquette Intercollegiate the previous week, anchored the team score with a +1 (73).

The most significant Rebel scoring came outside of the team total score. Senior Beau Briggs, making his first appearance of the season, fired a -5 (67) on Day 1, including birdies on seven of the nine holes coming in to take a share of the overall lead. Other Rebels competing as individuals included freshman Sarut Vongchaisit, also making his maiden appearance for the team, scoring a -3 (69), and Freshmen Jack Gnam carding a +5 (77).

Day 2 seemed to be when the schedule may have started to weigh on the team a bit. The team finished with a cumulative score some nine shots worse than the previous day. The +5 (293) total dropped the team to sixth place at +1, 13 strokes behind second round leader, South Florida. Wegener and LORD THORNBIRDIES paced the team with even par (72) rounds. Charlie Miller and Pledge Suber went backwards a bit with rounds of 74 and 75, respectively. Josh Sieple came in on Day 2 with a (+3) 75 as well. Individually, Beau Briggs continued his run at the top of the leaderboard. He backed up his stellar first round with a solid -1 (71) on Day 2. The score left him tied for third heading into the last day. Freshman Vongchaisit also maintained nice placement headed into the final round. His -1 (71) in Round 2 left him tied for eighth. Finally, Jack Gnam rallied from his first round to post a -2 (70) for his second round.

Any hopes of a final round rally for the team were dashed early with a string of bogeys across the board. LORD TED, clearly exhausted from carrying the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders, had another not-so-regal round of +5 (77). It was TEDDY’s worst round of the season so far and WE ARE NOT GOING TO WORRY ABOUT IT ONE BIT BECAUSE GOLF IS HARD AND WE HAVE FULL FAITH AND CONFIDENCE IN OUR LORD, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN.

With THORNBERRY out of the scoring on the last day, Cecil Wegener did what he has done all season thus far, pace the team with solid scoring. Lil’ Precious carded another even par round of 72 on the final day to finish at -3 and tied for eighth. It was his second Top 10 in a row. Miller and Pledge Suber both came in with better rounds on the final day (73 and 74), but it simply wasn’t enough to propel the team much further up the leaderboard. Josh Sieple’s final round +2 (74) capped off the scoring for the team and placed them at fifth with a +6 total for the week.

On the individual front, Beau Briggs had a very real opportunity in his first action of the season, to win the tournament outright. His final round was truly a mixed bag. Briggs continued an impressive run of birdies for the week, registering seven in his final round. Unfortunately, his card also had 6 bogeys on it on Day 3, getting him to -1 (71) on the day and -7 for the tournament. He maintained the clubhouse lead for most of the day until a pair of Liberty golfers (Liberty!? REALLY!? God was out there blessing that team with two-putt pars all day) finished one ahead to share the individual title at -8. Still, a great showing for Briggs that will hopefully give the Senior some momentum heading into the spring.

Rounding out the individual scoring, Freshmen Vongchaisit and Gnam completed their tournaments with rounds of 78 and 74 to finish T-21 and T-35.

With two players finishing tied for first, Liberty (#Blessed) rose up the leaderboard (on the third day of the tournament, no less) and finished with a winning score of -15. South Florida at -12, Purdue at -11, and South Florida at -4 finished out the top 4 team scores.

Golfweek Rankings (they’re somewhat skewed this early in the year):

Team: No. 37; Individual: LORD ALFRED TEDDYSON No. 146; Jackson “Pledge” Suber No. 162; Cecil “Lil’ Precious” Wegener No. 150; Beau Briggs: No. 10.

This Week’s Tournament:

The Warrior Princeville Invitational, October 28-30.

The Course: Makai Golf Club – Kauai, Hawaii.

Not a bad little place to finish off the fall season, if you are in to island settings and majestic views on your golf courses. This par 72, 7,200 yard Robert Trent Jones Jr. design is a Top 100 public golf course and rated as a “Top 5 Great Golf Setting” by National Geographic. So, your basic muni is what I’m saying. Really just looking forward to awkward team beach pics and ill-fitting Hawaiian shirts.

The Ole Miss Team:

TEDDY TAGOVAILOABERRY (Sr., Olive Branch, Miss.): Not a great week in Nashville for OUR LORD. Bookended some dismal rounds to finish way back in the pack. But … LORD TEDDY won this tournament in 2016 (Ole Miss also won the team title), so he will likely dominate the field in Hawaii because YOU DOUBT OUR LORD AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

(SIDE NOTE: let’s call it a TED bit. Golf Dot Com has a pretty interesting feature on OUR LORD’s golf instructor/swing guru George Gankas. It’s good stuff if you are any type of golf nerd

Jackson Suber (Freshman, Tampa, Fla.): Some ho-hum rounds in Nashville and a T-35 finish. Hopes to return to his early season success on the islands.

Charlie Miller (Redshirt Frosh, Jackson, Miss): Solid start but faded down the stretch in Nashville. Still came in with a Top 25 finish.

Cecil Wegener (Soph., Jackson, Miss): As steady a player as the team has had in the Fall. Another Top 10 finish in Nashville for the Precious one.

Josh Seiple (Sr, Castle Rock, Colo.): Parlayed a great week at Erin Hills to decent rounds in Nashville. Finished T-37.

Jack Gnam (Freshman, Ridgeland, Miss.): Got back on track after Day 1 in Nashville to finish even for the weekend and a tie for 35th.

Beau Briggs (Senior, Covington, La.): Great week for the senior. His -7 score was good enough for a T-3 placement, one back from the individual winning score. Should be a confidence builder from here on out.

The Field:

Hawaii, Louisville, Pepperdine, Purdue, Missouri, East Tennessee State, UAB, University of San Diego, Loyola Marymount, Louisiana-Lafayette.

Top individuals who are playing for second behind the EARL OF SAND WEDGE:

No. 11 Matthias Schmid – Louisville, No. 25 RJ Manke, No. 34 Timmy Hildebrand – Purdue, No. 42 Clay Feagler – Pepperdine, No. 44 Joshua McCarthy – Pepperdine.

If you want to follow the action:

Golfstat and Ole Miss Men’s Golf Twitter are your top follows.

Next Tournament:

We are off until the spring, where we pick it back up in late February at the USF-Ole Miss Challenge at Bellair Country Club in Clearwater Beach, Fla. In the meantime, all of you work on your short games and I’ll see you then.