For those who follow college golf closely, it has somehow felt like Cole Hammer, Pierceson Coody and Parker Coody have been a part of the Texas Longhorns program for the better part of a decade. In reality, it has been only since the 2018-19 season when the trio arrived as one of the most highly touted freshman contingents in recent college golf history.
With their arrival, there was the promise of a national championship. They delivered last Wednesday, as Texas won its fourth NCAA Championship and the first since Jordan Spieth’s Longhorns earned the title in 2012. But it took every last inch of four years for Hammer and the Coody twins – grandsons of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody – to push their squad to the mountaintop.
Texas caught fire on the final day of stroke play at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, and then bull-rushed its way through the vaunted trio of Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt and host Arizona State. None of the three matches was easy, but Texas controlled play throughout the vast majority of match play and fully proved itself as the best team. Texas got solid performances out of everyone in match play as the Coody brothers, Hammer and Travis Vick all went 2-1 with timely contributions. It was the junior Vick who clinched the winning point for the Longhorns on the 18th green against ASU’s Cameron Sisk and went running deliriously toward his teammates.
It would have been an empty feeling if the decorated Texas seniors couldn’t break through. Now they are forever legends down on the Forty Acres.
“They're three of the best golfers that have ever played at Texas,” coach John Fields said. “With these guys, they are three of the best people on the planet, and I'm going to really miss them and so is Texas. But they're going to go out there and do great things.”
“There are so many mountains we've had to climb. The University of Texas provides us with such incredible opportunities, but it also puts a tremendous amount of pressure on you because winning a national championship here is very special."
Texas coach John FieldS
When Hammer and the Coodys were freshman, they led a defeat of the powerhouse duo of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in match play before losing to Stanford in the NCAA finals. Expectations had been exceeded, emotional energy had been spent and the rarified air of the championship match was difficult to process.
This time when they beat the Pokes in the quarterfinals, the situation had changed. Fields talked about how the Longhorns had used their enthusiasm to carry them in the past, but they were missing the experience portion of the equation. They had it this year.
“One of the things we talked about last night was how you get on such emotional highs, especially when you beat a team that's as good as Oklahoma State, then we end up beating a very hot Vanderbilt team,” Parker Coody said. “You get on such emotional highs with those wins. We talked about how to get ready for (the final). Pierceson, Cole and I remember in 2019 that was the first time our phones blew up, because we took out the state of Oklahoma, and with the short turnaround we were just drained. We talked about it last night, how important it was to get ready for today.”
It may be lost to the sands of time, but Texas played quite poorly over the first two days of stroke play where the Longhorns were 22-over and in danger of missing either the 15-team or eight-team cuts. The tenor of the tournament changed for them from there as the Longhorns righted the ship on day three and then stunned the field with a 7-under 277, the best team score on day four by seven strokes. It pushed the Longhorns all the way into the No. 4 seed, but more importantly it grabbed momentum.
“No one had played well the first three rounds, and all of a sudden we just jumped out that last round and it was like, ‘All right, it's time to go; it's a new tournament,’ ” Pierceson Coody said. “Knowing that we're all in form gave us a confidence that we just gained from that one round. I never would have understood how important that round was.”
Texas won its first two NCAA golf titles in 1971 and 1972, when Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite were the team leaders. The Longhorns consistently had chances to win in more recent years, including a real heartbreaker in 2016 when Oregon – playing on its home course – won 3-2 in the final with the help of an injured Beau Hossler having to forfeit his match before it even began, giving an automatic point to the Ducks.
There was no heartbreak this time.
“There are so many mountains we've had to climb,” Fields said. “The University of Texas provides us with such incredible opportunities, but it also puts a tremendous amount of pressure on you because winning a national championship here is very special. These guys knew it. That's why they came to Texas.”
As for what’s next for the departing senior class, Hammer and Pierceson Coody earned top-five honors in the PGA Tour University rankings to give them full access to Korn Ferry Tour events throughout the summer. They are exempt into the final stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament. Parker Coody finished 13th in the standings, allowing him to earn membership on one of the PGA Tour’s international circuits.
They will all be entering their next chapter with the memory of a lifetime.
Sean Fairholm