CARLSBADCARLSBAD — Golfers remove their caps to shake hands at the end of a round, but Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton didn’t have to. His garnet cap was lying on the fringe near the 17th green.
It had come off after Clanton collapsed to the ground when his birdie chip hit the back of the cup and popped out, allowing Auburn senior J.M. Butler to win the hole, win the match and win the NCAA men’s golf team championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on Wednesday evening.
“I’m just relieved,” Butler said a few minutes later, “and a little sore from the guys tackling me.”
Butler and Clanton shook hands, and the rest of the No. 1-ranked Tigers charged onto the green to celebrate. Mere feet away, Clanton hugged a Seminoles teammate and began crying.
It was a harsh ending to a thrilling anchor twosome in match play, with the teams splitting the other four matches. They were tied through 11 holes, and Butler was only 1-up through 14.
Then Clanton watched his approach shot on 15 hit the elevated green on La Costa’s North Course and roll off the shaved backside into the pond. They tied the par-3 16th hole thanks to a delicate sand save by Butler, meaning Clanton had to win the final two holes to force a playoff.
A day earlier, Auburn freshman Jackson Koivun was in a similar position in the semifinals against Ohio State’s Adam Wallin only to lose both holes and go to a nervy playoff. Koivun’s birdie putt on the third extra hole in the gathering darkness sent the Tigers to the final.
Clanton hit his drive into a fairway bunker at 17, then his approach shot about 10 yards short of the green — needing to drain the chip to extend the match.
Some players leave the flagstick in, hoping it might deaden a chip shot and drop it into the hole. Others pull the pin, fearing it might knock the ball out.
Clanton pulled it.
“I told him as long as we had a swing at it, we still had a chance and to keep believing and keep believing,” longtime Florida State coach Trey Jones said. “He hit a great shot, and it just had a little too much speed on it. Maybe if that flag was in, it could have changed it a little bit. But if it would have hit the pin and bounced out, we would have been sitting here saying, ‘Why didn’t he pull it?’
“That’s the thing about golf.”
It gave Butler a 2-and-1 victory (two-hole lead with one to play) and the Tigers a 3-2 margin overall.
That Butler was selected for the fifth and final match was by design. Auburn coach Nick Clinard did it in all three rounds of match play, and Butler never trailed in any of them.
“When it came down to it,” Clinard said, “we knew he had a lot of guts and a lot of heart and he refuses to lose.”
He ed their conversation before the season, when the senior from Louisville walked into his office, closed the door and said he wanted to win a national championship.
Butler: “I just believed it was my destiny.”
Clinard: “He’s a kid who seeks a lot of information about how to improve. He needed to get his golf swing better and he did that over the last four years. He’s just a true competitor. I don’t want to say he over-practices, but I’ve never seen somebody work as hard as he does. He’s so committed, on and off the golf course. He’s the best version of himself every day.”
There also were the lessons from last summer’s U.S. Amateur Championships, which also uses a match play format in later rounds. Butler was 3-up through 10 holes in the semifinals against Ohio State’s Neal Shipley … and lost.
He exorcised that ghost in Tuesday’s NCAA semis, finding himself paired against Shipley and winning 2-and-1. Then he won the clinching match Wednesday to give the Tigers their first golf national championship.
“Obviously there’s a lot I learned,” Butler said of the U.S. Amateur, “but to put it simply: Just believe in yourself and stay out of your own way and get the job done no matter what.”
The men’s and women’s NCAA championships return to La Costa next year and 2026. Organizers have already submitted a bid for 2027 and 2028.
Florida State plans to be back here.
“There’s no words for it,” Jones, the Seminoles coach, said as Clanton’s teammates tried to console him. “You can’t say I’ve been there before and it will be OK. They don’t want to hear that. You only get so many chances at a national championship, and you’re either very fortunate and you’re blessed with the opportunity to win one. It didn’t go our way. We didn’t win. Golf is hard.
“We didn’t come here for second place. It will motivate us. We’ll be back.”
