Ole Miss Golf 2018: The GAME OF THORNBERRIES rides to the Golf Egg Bowl

Red Cup Rebellion is a golf blog now … at least it will be for the duration this spring as writer-crawlt-out-of-whatever-rock-he-was-under Bunkie Perkins loops for the Ole Miss Golf Team during their Spring 2018 season. This feature will preview the tournament, the courses, the Ole Miss golfers, and the field each week, but more in-damn-portantly, this feature will chronicle the exploits of Ole Miss’ REGINING, DEFENDING, NCDOUBLEA INDIVIDUAL LARGE ADULT GOLFING CHAMPION AND BY GAWD NUMBER ONE COLLEGE GOLFER IN THE SEVEN KINGDOMS ... 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:

Fresh off a tournament victory at Bulls Bay in Charleston, SC, the mighty Links Rebs set out to the woods of North Carolina to try to make it back-to-back titles at the Gary Koch Intercollegiate at Gaston Country Club.

Things got off to the best possible start imaginable in Round 1, as the team fired a cumulative score of 12 under to sit atop the leaderboard. Freshman phenom Cecil Wegener fired an opening 5 under (67) and BY GOD NUMBER ONE AMATUER GOLFER IN THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD BRADEN THORNBERRY complemented the young Freshman’s round with 4 under (68) of his own. Josh Seiple, who has really been coming on as of late, added a 4 under (68) round as well to start things off.

The second round is where things, as they have been wont to do for our heroes of late, took a turn. A team cumulative score of +9 brought the squad back down to a fourth place standing after the first two rounds. The lone sub-par round in the second frame came from THE WORLD DOMINATOR HIMSELF BRADEN THORNBERRY, who backed up a first round -4 with a 2 under (70), good enough for a T4 positioning heading into the final round.

The final round saw the team return to their birdie-dropping form as they posted the low cumulative score of the day at 8 under. The score planted them firmly in 3rd place overall behind tournament hosts Kentucky and Auburn. BRADEN THORNBERRY BEATER OF WORLDS wrapped up another strong performance with a final round 1 under 71, giving him another ho hum no big deal top three finish. If you’re counting — AND YOU SHOULD BE — that’s 18 Top 5 finishes for THORNBERRY over his career.

LORD THORNBERRY wasn’t alone in dropping great scores in the final round, as Cecil Wegener bounced back from a rough second round to post another 5 under (67), which vaulted the reigning SEC Freshmen of the Week into another top 10. Josh Seiple displayed some nice consistency throughout the tournament and continues to establish himself as one of the most reliable golfers in the Rebel rotation. His 2 under (70) final round was good enough to get him a T14 finish for the week. Kerry Sweeney posted his best round of the week in the final round, firing an even par 72. Finally, individually, Sophomore Brody Blackmon rounded out his first week on the traveling squad with a T67 finish.

Golfweek Rankings: Team: 32nd; Individual: BRADEN TOP 5s OR DIE THORNBERRY, 10th.

This Week’s Tournament:

HELL YEAH GOLF EGG BOWL! Old Waverly Collegiate Championship hosted by Mississippi State University.

The Course:

Old Waverly. The Mississippi golfing standard in the state if you don’t mind having to drive to the middle of nowhere and act like it’s a real special occasion to stay in a golf condo in West Point. At least Dancing Rabbit has a damn casino! Location and general hostile State environment aside, the Jerry Pate/Bob Cupp design that played host to the 1999 US Women’s Open, is one of the premier golf destinations in the deep south. Here’s a video fly through of the course set to Master’s music because sure, why not.

The Ole Miss Team:

WORLD FAMOUS BRADEN THORNBERRY (Jr, Olive Branch, MS): Led the Ole Miss team to a third place finish at the Gary Koch Intercollegiate. Earned himself a T-3 finish in the Individual competition. Just another standard week ahead for our guy; the Old Waverly Invitational on Monday and Tuesday, then back to Oxford to maybe go to a class or two, hone his game, polish all of his trophies, then off to compete in the Web.com Tour event at Oxford Country Club starting Thursday. Normal college stuff. Casually named a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan Award given to the best college golfer in the country.

Kerry Sweeney (Sr., Melbourne, FL): Kept it pretty consistently around par at the Koch. Shot a final round even par (72) to finish in 41st place.

Cecil Wegener (Fr., Ridgeland, MS): The freshman continues to impress. Was at one point leading the Koch Intercollegiate during his first round 5 under (67). Finished the tournament in the Top 10 after dropping another 5 under on the field in the final round.

Josh Seiple (RS Jr., Castle Rock, CO): Strong showing again this week from Seiple. Bookended rounds of 4 under and 2 under to finish the tournament tied for 14th.

Brody Blackmon (Sophomore, Sulpher Springs, TX): Blackmon’s first action of the Spring. Carded a +16 total for the week to finish at T67.

The Field:

Mississippi State, No. 9 LSU, Lipscomb, UL-Lafayette, Coastal Carolina, Memphis, South Alabama, Southern Miss, No. 22 South Florida, McNeese.

Top individuals who are playing for second behind the PROTECTORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GOLF EGG BOWL TROPHY IF THERE WAS SUCH A THING include: No. 32 Luis Gagne, No. 51 Tanapat Pichaikool, No. 68 Trey Winstead, No. 71 Claudio Correa, No. 79 Phillip Barbaree,

If you want to follow the action as THE OLE MISS GOLF JUGGERNAUT ROLLS ON:

Golfstat and the Ole Miss Men’s Golf Twitter are your friends this week.

Next Tournament:

IT’S CHAMPIONSHIP TIME BABY! SEC Championship in Sea Island, Georgia. Fun fact, I was married on Sea Island, so looks like the Ole Miss Golf Team will be looking to follow my lead and consummate a great season while on the island.

Bonus content!

The award-winning Ole Miss video production group is doing a Season for the Golf Team. You can peep the Cabo episode here: