The inaugural Landfall Tradition welcomed 20 different universities from nine conferences to its 24-team tournament held on the Country Club of Landfall’s  Pete Dye Course.  The excitement started early as it took final rounds of 68 by Justin Smith and 70 by Matt Anderson to push the defending NCAA men’s champion, the University of Minnesota Gophers, into a tie with host UNC-Wilmington, both with one-under scores of 863.  With Sunday travel commitments unfortunately preventing a playoff, Minnesota was declared the first Landfall Tradition men’s winner after comparing fifth player last round scores, thus leading to a disappointing loss for the Seahawks.

The women’s title went to the 3rd ranked nationally, University of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes and its first year coach, Holley Hair.  Tulsa posted an impressive one-under par team score the final day to overcome an 11 shot deficit and defeat the Florida State Seminoles by three shots.

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Spectacular weather and a new site greeted the 120 collegiate golfers who came to Wilmington for the second Landfall Tradition.  The tournament was moved from the Pete Dye Course, home of the inaugural event, to the 27 hole Nicklaus Course at Landfall.  The new site, however, did not affect the outcome as Minnesota took full advantage of the great weather and repeated as men’s champion with a 15-shot margin victory over Ohio State and a team score of 851, still the Tradition team record.

The University of New Mexico Women Lobos, ranked 5th nationally and playing in their first Landfall Tradition,  recorded 11 team birdies on the final day to take a four-shot margin win over the Tulane University women, also first time competitors.

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The field for the 2004 Landfall Tradition was the strongest yet with 20 universities competing and 30 of the 120 players coming from 15 foreign countries.  The women’s field was especially strong boasting six of the top 15 nationally ranked teams.  And, for the second straight year, the New Mexico Women Lobos captured first place with a score of 878, 13 shots better than their winning score of the previous year.  The UNCW Lady Seahawks finished second at 881 after very strong rounds the last two days.  Lobo Christine Fernandez earned the distinction of being the only player to have played on the winning women’s team all three years.  Christine had played for Tulsa, the winner in 2002, and then had transferred to New Mexico who won each of the last two years.

On the men’s side, the Big Ten Conference again supplied the winner, but this time it was the Michigan State Spartans who dethroned two-time defending champion Minnesota.  They defeated the second place Duke Blue Devils and four other Big Ten contenders with a record-tying team score of 851.

Individually, Will Shambley, a UNCW freshman, set a course and Tradition record with an opening round of 64.  And Duke’s Ryan Blaum tied the Tournament three-day record of 208 held by Minnesota’s Justin Smith.

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The spectacular weather of the previous two Landfall Traditions came to an end the first day of the 2005 Tournament.  Wind and rain produced average men’s scores three shots higher than last year, and the Texas A & M Aggies became the first non-Big Ten Conference Tradition champion with a score of 870, 19 shots higher than last year’s winner.  The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers finished second with a score of 880.  That same score in 2004 left them in 7th place, further evidence of the tougher playing conditions this year.

The weather didn’t seem to bother the Purdue women however, as they not only won the Tournament by 17 shots over second place Wake Forest, but also broke the Landfall Tradition women’s team record of 878 by a shot.  And, individually, Christel Boeljon of Purdue tied the individual single round record of 67 held jointly by Kailin Downs (New Mexico, 2004) and Lindsey Knowlton (Ohio State, 2004).

The first Landfall Tradition hole-in-one was recorded by Tulsa’s Sam Korbe on Friday.

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The Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, led by Coach Bill Brogden, a Wilmington native whose father Leon led New Hanover High to eight state basketball championships, went into Sunday’s final round with a 12 shot lead and then really got hot to win by 28 over second place Xavier. No surprise, the Tulsa team also grabbed individual titles with Mitch Cohimia and Nicolas Geyger tying at 215 and teammate Brett Myers taking third at 218. Further evidence of the Tulsa domination was clear with 75 being the highest score posted by any of their five players over the three day event.

On the women’s side it was a wonderful, but cliff hanging, home coming for Virginia Coach Jan Mann, who, five years ago, as coach of the UNCW women, had started the Landfall Tradition with Pete Hexter and the then men’s coach Grant Robbins. The Cavaliers entered Sunday play with a seemingly insurmountable 12 shot lead over the Michigan State Spartans. That entire lead evaporated, and the Spartans were actually ahead coming down the final nine holes. Virginia fought back to bring a one shot lead into the final hole, only to lose it there causing the team’s total scores to be tied after 54 holes.Tournament rules state that ties are broken by comparing final day scores of each team’s #5 player. A Virginia 80 topped a Michigan State 81, and the women’s champion was crowned. Sara Brown of Michigan State took individual honors by four shots over Mandy Goins of Wake Forest. UNCW freshman Carmen Perez-Narbon was the Sunday medalist with a two under par 70.

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Details to come.

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