Bulldogs Fall to Commodores in SEC Championship Quarterfinals

Saturday, April 23

St. Simons Island, Ga. (Sea Island Seaside Course)

Mississippi State

Vanderbilt

Ford Clegg at 2022 SEC Championship Match Play

Photo by: LeslieWhite

Bulldogs Fall to Commodores in SEC Championship Quarterfinals

April 23, 2022 | Men's Golf

Final Results

By: Josie Hutton, Student Assistant/Communications

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Mississippi State battled to the final tee, but the Bulldogs saw their time come to an end at the 2022 SEC Men's Golf Championship with a 3-2 loss to No. 1 seed Vanderbilt in match play.

Bulldogs Ford Clegg and Hunter Logan both won their matches for State. Together, they were able to beat two top-25 players in the country.

"I'm obviously proud of our effort today," head coach Dusty Smith said. "I thought we took a great opponent to the absolute wire. I think we proved a lot to ourselves this week. Match play is a mental battle and ultimately, they made a couple more shots than us today."

Clegg took down No. 8 ranked Cole Sherwood 2-and-1. Clegg took the lead early on Hole 1 and maintained a 1-up lead until Sherwood tied it up on Hole 5. Clegg responded with a birdie on the seventh tee to take back the lead and didn't hold back. On Hole 10, Clegg capitalized on Sherwood's double-bogey to go 2-up, and then followed with a par-3 birdie on Hole 12 for a 3-up lead. Sherwood battled back on Hole 16, but it was too late for the Commodore's No. 1.

Logan edged out a tight battle with No. 13 Gordon Sargent. Through the front nine, Logan dropped 1-down to Sargent on Hole 2 but responded quickly on Hole 4 to bring it back to a tie. On Hole 7, Sargent went up by one, but Logan responded again on the next hole to tie it back up. On Hole 13, Logan took the lead at 1-up which would hold the rest of the way. Logan wrapped up his match 1-and-1 for the win.

Ruan Pretorius took Vanderbilt's Reid Davenport to 19 holes. Davenport carried the lead throughout the match, but Pretorius kept coming back to tie it up. On Hole 16, Pretorius was down by 2 and rallied back to win his final two holes to tie the match on Hole 18. On the extra hole, Pretorius dropped the match by one stroke.

"Really proud of Ford [Clegg] for setting the tone today," Smith stated. "Ruan [Pretorius] did such a great job battling and winning the final two holes to push the match to extra holes. Hunter [Logan] played solid all day."

Harrison Davis was another Bulldog that didn't go down without a fight. In the front nine, Davis tied the match back up three times with Vanderbilt's Harrison Ott. On Hole 10, Davis took the lead 1-up, but Ott came back to tie the match on Hole 12. Ott went 1-up on Hole 15, and Davis was unable to come back. Ben Nelson dropped his match with Vanderbilt's William Moll at 4-and-3.

"We learned a lot about ourselves this week. We need to learn from how we felt out there this week and continue to grow from our experience as we head into NCAA Regionals coming up."

The Bulldogs will await their postseason fate. NCAA Selection Show is scheduled for May 5 with NCAA Regionals on May 15-18.

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