CARLSBAD, Calif. – The seating area in Bar Traza, Omni La Costa Resort and Spa’s late-night spot for libations and light bites, was jam-packed with Auburn supporters when Tigers senior J.M.
Butler walked into the room, still donning his national-championship T-shirt. The ovation was deafening. Just a couple hours earlier, Butler had capped a dominant match-play performance with a 2-and-1 victory over Florida State’s Luke Clanton that earned Butler the clinching point and Auburn its first NCAA Championship in men’s golf.
That’s exactly what Butler promised Tigers head coach Nick Clinard as a high-school senior, sitting in Clinard’s office on a recruiting visit and proclaiming, “I want to win a national championship, and if I come to Auburn, that’s what I’m going to do.” “Here he is now,” Clinard said, “a senior, on his last hole of college golf, and he got it done for us.” Added Butler: “This was my destiny.
” The top-ranked team in the country entering the week, Auburn not only won 10 stroke-play tournaments, two shy of Cal’s modern-day NCAA record (12, 2012-13), but the Tigers also lost to just nine teams all season – five of those losses came in stroke play at La Costa – and completed the year with a perfect 8-0 record in match play, a ledger topped by Wednesday’s thrilling 3-2 win over fifth-ranked Florida State. “I told them before we got here, if they won this golf tournament, they could go down as one of the best teams in the his.