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On Sunday evening, the Tower was lit orange for the Texas Longhorns men's golf team after a historic victory at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity to win the school's fourth straight Big 12 title. But it wasn't the fact that Texas won a 47th conference title or that no other school in the conference has won one since 2012 that was the most impressive -- it was the fact that all five players finished at or under par for the first time in Big 12 history.
There's more, though. Winning by 26 strokes (26!) was the largest-ever margin of victory in Big 12 history and the 15-under par final round also set a Big 12 record.
"Today is something we've been looking for all year," said head coach John Fields. "We want to play our best golf together. I don't know if at any time this year we felt like we had a round like this where everyone played well. It says a lot about this team. We can take that as momentum heading into the regional and hopefully the national championship."
Indeed, four of the five Texas golfers finished among the top 10 on the individual leaderboard, with junior star Beau Hossler tying for second place after carding a 3-under 69 in the final round to finish 5-under par. Hossler finished only one stroke behind Oklahoma State's Stratton Nolen, who needed birdies on holes 14 and 15 in the final round to win.
"It has been awesome, a good ride," Hossler said. "Certainly, I'm really proud of the guys this year. Like the last couple of years, we were able to play really well at this tournament. It's a really good conference. We have some stiff competition. Anytime you can be consistently beating those other teams, it's good for the program. I'm proud of the guys. They've worked hard, and I've worked hard as well. Today was the first time we all played really well."
The No. 1-ranked team in the nation will now wait to receive a regional placement on Thursday, May 5 at 8:30 a.m. CT live on the Golf Channels' Morning Drive. The D1 men's golf championship takes place May 27-June 1 in Eugene, Oregon.