University of Texas golf course shines

Three rounds of golf at the University of Texas Golf Club by 70 of the nation’s best Division I men’s collegiate golfers produced one under-par total score, indicating that the real star of the NCAA Austin Regional was the six-year-old Roy Bechtol-designed course in Austin, Texas.
 
Only University of Texas junior Lance Lopez, the medalist, posted a three-round score at or under par, as he shot a 4-under-par 209 (68-69-72) on the 7,412-yard, par-71 championship track to beat Florida’s Billy Horschel by five strokes.
 
Horschel had the only sub-par finish in the final round, shooting a 1-under 70 in rainy and windy conditions, to lead the Gators to the team title with a score of 22-over-par 874, in the process holding off Texas Tech by two strokes (24-over 876) and Texas by three (25-over 877). 
 
“The difficulty of this golf course, combined with the winds of the first two rounds and the wind, rain and cool of the final round, was the deciding factor of this tournament,” Texas head golf coach John Fields said. “We play this course all the time and we know how good it is. By the third round, the players on the other teams in this tournament had a better understanding of where to hit shots and how the course will play, and it still beat most of them.”
 
Opened for play in 2003 and lengthened and renovated in 2007 to create just the setting for this and future tournaments, the UT Golf Club is located in the Texas Hill Country, 15 miles west of the University of Texas campus.
 
The course – which Bechtol designed in collaboration with former partner Randy Russell – overlooks Lake Austin and borders the Balcones Natural Wildlife Preserve, offering challenging shots and views that rival the best in Austin. The club is a first-class experience uniting superior golf and club amenities with the triumphant traditions embedded in the spirit of The University of Texas. 
 
The University of Texas has a long and distinguished group of heralded golf alumni, including Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Mark Brooks, Justin Leonard, Harrison Frazar and Omar Uresti. Bechtol worked with each of those players and many others to assure the UT Golf Club would be great.
 
Fields and representatives of the UT Golf Club have aggressively courted the 2012 men’s golf national championship, and a representative of the NCAA committee that examines bids and decides such matters attended the Austin regional during the final round.
 
Jack Key, an assistant commissioner of the Southland Conference and part of the six-member committee that selects NCAA sites, studied the course, its amenities, the volunteer base and overall flow of the 54-hole regional at the UT Golf Club. He said he came away satisfied even as the course auditioned under rather extreme circumstances.
 
“What we want is a true test of golf,” Key told the Austin American-Statesman. “We want par to be a good score. The golf course held up. It was a fair test.”