After battling through what appeared to be increasingly excruciating shoulder pain for the last four holes of the NCAA Semifinals on Tuesday, Texas Longhorns junior golfer Beau Hossler is a "game-time decision" for Wednesday's finals, according to head coach John Fields on Wednesday morning.
Hossler suffered an undisclosed left shoulder injury while hitting his second shot on the 15th hole, but was able to birdie that hole and the next hole, then get up and down from the bunker on 17 with his putter before hitting a long putt for par to secure a point and help the 'Horns advance.
While a 15-minute break for medical treatment wasn't able to help much, Hossler said he didn't consider quitting.
"Obviously I didn't want to hurt myself, but at the same time this was the national championship," Hossler said. "This was the goal ... the first day I stepped on campus at Texas was to win a national championship with my team. Sometimes you've got to sacrifice a little to do that. Fortunately, I was able to finish strong there."
Now the question is whether he will be able to sacrifice once again for the team on Wednesday afternoon in Eugene -- he admitted after the semifinals that he didn't know whether he'll be physically able to swing a club for 18 holes.
If he can't, the Longhorns will take a major hit, as Fields won't be able to substitute another player in for Hossler. So the junior will either have to play through it or sacrifice his match, forcing Texas to win three of the other four contests to win the national title on Oregon's home course.