Ole Miss golf 2018: The GAME OF THORNBERRIES invades the CHEESE HEAD REALM

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:

The Golfing Rebs continued their tour of cities most likely to be profiled in the next Garden & Gun as they moved their traveling birdie show from the shores of Charleston, S.C. to the rolling hills of Birmingham, Ala. and Shoal Creek Country Club. Not only was the squad looking at its first formidable field of the year, with perennial SEC contenders Texas A&M and Vandy making the trip to the deep south for the event, but LORD THORNBERRY was seeking to defend his 2017 Shoal Creek individual title as well.

OUR LORD OF THE PINGS was the model of consistency throughout the tournament, dropping steady rounds of 72-71-71 on the field to finish at -2. Unfortunately, the score wasn’t quite enough to retain the Shoal Creek title. Steven Fisk of Georgia Southern and Phillip Knowles of North Florida (prove to me that that is even a school) both came in with -6 totals to share the individual honors. LORD THORNBERRY’s score did get him into another Top 5 finish at T4.

In recaps past, much of the summary would be surrounding the greatness of OUR LORD TEDFORD and the efforts of much of the rest of the squad to keep up. It’s what at times last year kept the program from being a serious contender. It’s still early mind you, but it certainly looks like LORD THORNBERRY has some help this year.

And help they most certainly did in Birmingham. Freshman Jackson “The Pledge” Suber, for the second-straight tournament, showed out and claimed a Top 10 finish. Pledge went 70-71-74 to get to -1 and a solid T7 for the week. Sophomore Cecil Wegener came out smoking in the first round, birdying four of his first six holes on the way to an opening round 71. Wegener followed that with solid rounds of 73 and 75 to place him at +3 for the week and a T24 finish.

The other freshman in the mix was Charlie Miller. Miller carded consistent 75-75-73 rounds to get his ship in at +7 and a T33 for the week. Josh Seiple fought off a rough opening round to finish with efforts of 74-75 and a +13 T59 placement. The Rebel scores were good enough for a solo fourth place tournament finish at a cumulative team score of +6, behind Vandy at +3, North Florida (again, not a real school probably) at +1, and run-away winner Texas A&M at -8. Mercy, Aggolfies.

Ole Miss also had Chip Getz (golfer, goes by the name of Chip) and Jack Gnam competing as individuals for the week. Getz struggled early but got in with rounds of 76 and 75 in the end to complete a +18 T76 score. Gnam, a freshmen from Ridgeland, MS, showed some nice promise in his first collegiate action, going in with scores of 72-72-79 and a +7 T-33 placement.

Golfweek Rankings:

Team: 14*; Individual: TEDDY GOLFGAME: 44*, Jackson Suber: 14* (*again, these rankings are a little skewed because we are so early in the season, so grain of salt and whatnot)

This Week’s Tournament:

Erin Hills Intercollegiate, September 30 – October 2.

The Course: Erin Hills, Erin, Wisc. 7,800-yard Par 72.

Designed by Dr. Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry, and Ron Whitten. A course built in the middle of damn nowhere for the sole purpose of holding golf majors, dairy conventions, and weddings. Home of the 2017 US Open where everyone bitched about the course being too easy for a US Open and so the USGA made the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock miserable in retaliation. Other than that, I’m sure it’s a fine golf course.

The Ole Miss Team:

THE EARL OF CLUB TWIRL (Sr, Olive Branch, MS): Workmanlike -1 at Shoal Creek got him a T4, putting him one away from tying the Ole Miss all-time mark for most Top 10s in a career. Should have that record wrapped up by Thanksgiving. Showed deceptive speed chasing down this short-sided chip during tournament play this week.

Jackson Suber (Freshman, Tampa, Fla.): Another very impressive tournament for The Pledge. Challenged for the outright win until the final round, but still got the plane on the ground to get in with back-to-back Top 10s to start his Ole Miss golf career.

Charlie Miller (Soph., Jackson, MS): Continues to show consistency for a freshman thrust into the starting lineup. Finished +7 and T33 at Shoal Creek.

Cecil Wegener (Soph., Jackson, MS): Followed up his Top 25 at Kiawah with another one at Shoal Creek to help get the team into a Top 5 finish.

The Golfer Named Chip, Josh Seiple, Beau Briggs, Jack Gnam: All have shown promise at various points both this season and last. Any one of them could provide some needed back end support for the team score as the season progresses.

The Field:

No. 45 Marquette, No. 12 Arizona State, No. 28 Iowa, McNeese St., Minnesota, No. 46 Utah, No. 50 Michigan St., Northwestern, UC Davis, and Wisconsin.

Top individuals who are playing for second behind the CHAIRMAN OF THE FAIRWAYS AND GREENS COMMITTEE:

No. 5 Chun-An Yu – Arizona St., No. 40 Cameron Sisk – Arizona St., No. 59 Donnie Trosper – Michigan St., No. 61 Alex Schaake – Iowa, No. 62 Hunter Eichhorn – Marquette, No. 80 Won Jun Lee – Arizona St., No. 85 Kyler Dunkle – Utah, No. 100 Matthew Walker - Iowa.

If you want to follow the action:

Golfstat and Ole Miss Men’s Golf Twitter are your places to go.

Next Tournament:

Franklin American Mortgage Intercollegiate, The Grove, Nashville, Tenn. We’ll go play but I want to be on the record that this whole tournament sounds like a sub-prime scam set up to finance somebody’s fledgling country music career.