Brandt victorious, 19th commit, Geoff McDonald-tennis, Corbs-baseball, bball
February 1, 2016
Brandt captured his eighth PGA tour title with a victory today at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Club in San Diego. Brandt has now won four times on California soil with victories in 2012 at the Farmers at Torrey Pines, at Pebble Beach in 2013 and last year, 2015, and today’s victory. He also has victories at the 2007 Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, NC, the 2011 Heritage at Hilton Head, the 2012 Tour Championship at East Lake GC outside Atlanta, the year he won the Fed Ex Cup, and the RBC Canadian Open in 2013 in Ontario, Canada. Quite a resume Brandt has built.
Brandt shot 69 yesterday in what could almost be described as a mild typhoon with rain pelting the players and winds in the 40-50 MPH range. It was an amazing round by the man. He finished and had to sweat it out today as he was a shot back of Jimmy Walker starting the day. Walker was -7 and Brandt was -6. K.J. Choi was also at -6 entering the day as both Walker and Choi started on the 11th. Conditions were extremely difficult today too with winds gusting at 25-30 though it was clear. It was cold with temperatures in the low 50’s and high 40’s and it seemed like the gusting wind was mostly in the players’ faces. Awesome stuff from Brandt. He said he didn’t sleep a lick last night. Brandt’s wife, Mandy, four year old daughter Lily, and three year old son Austin were at Torrey to share in the victory today. Means so much to Brandt after a heartbreaking playoff loss to Fabian Gomez two weeks ago at the Sony Open in Honolulu.
Brandt will be playing at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week. So back in action. Jon Curran will also play in the Waste Management tournament. It’s an electric tournament, with Super Bowl weekend, the Par 3 16th, the Stadium Hole, being the most exhilarating hole on tour. There will be 30,000 boisterous fans in the stadium setting on the 16th. And Brandt will be ready to go in two weeks at Pebble Beach to defend his title there. Love where Brandt’s game is right now.
Tripp Isenhour of Golf Channel said on Golf Central after the tournament today that Brandt and Coach Butch Harmon are gearing up everything for Augusta National in April. This could very well be the year. In the meantime, Brandt is going to try and make some more hay on the California swing with tournaments at Pebble and then the Northern Trust Open at Riviera CC in LA the week after that. I believe Brandt will play at Riviera. He may take that week off to prepare for the Florida swing though. I would bet so. Then it’s the Florida swing, the Shell Houston Open and time to really hone the game even more for the Masters, April 7th-10th, Brandt pretty homed in right now. This season looks potentially spectacular for Brandt.
We got a commitment from 6’3″, 215 pound New Orleans outside linebacker Kenny Hebert over the weekend. Kenny is our 19th commit to the 2016 class. In the 2015 season for Holy Cross High School in N’awlins, Kenny recorded 70 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, five sacks and two forced fumbles. He helped lead his Holy Cross team recover from a 5-6 season in 2014 to a 7-5 season in 2015 and reach the second round of the playoffs. Kenny received honorable mention all-state honors after the season. Kenny is the first linebacker in the class and joins present studs Zach Cunningham, Nigel Bowden, Josh Smith and many others at a stacked linebacker position on our 2016 team. Watched film on Kenny. Loved it. Knocks the common sense out of quarterbacks and running backs. With Kenny and last week’s commit, defensive end Andrew Mintze from Philly, we got some excellent pass rushers and players period. Both are rated high two stars, but look like solid three star players to me. Certainly diamonds in the rough who can help this football team in the future.
Looks like Kelvin Lucky committed to Troy University near his hometown of Elmore, Alabama over the weekend. We’ve got a good shot with California three-star defensive lineman Josiah Sa’o, who visited over the weekend. Josiah is a 6’2” 1/2, 285 defensive tackle from Kearny High School in San Diego. Would be a great pickup for the staff. Sa’o loved Vanderbilt during his visit, and we’ve got a really good shot with Josiah. It’s between us and Arizona now. Will be on pins and needles on Wednesday, signing day. We may have some surprises.
Will have more on Wednesday and Thursday with signing day and articles on the defending national champion women’s tennis team that just defeated No.10 Stanford over the weekend. Stanford has been the standard bearer in women’s and men’s college tennis over the last 30 years with both teams having won 17 national titles apiece. That was a huge victory for Geoff McDonald’s team. Will have more on Geoff and the team’s prospects heading into the rest of this 2016 season.
Also, a preview with Corbs on his 2016 VU baseball team that will compete for SEC and national honors once again this season. Both of those stories will be coming up Wednesday or Thursday.
Bball with a tough loss @ Texas on Saturday, 72-58. The good news is that last year on this day we were 11-9, and finished out the regular season 8-2 to complete a 19-11 season. We are now 12-9, and an 8-2 finish would put us at 20-11 with a top 30 strength of schedule. The committee likes to look at the last 10, so let’s get ’em all and not leave any mystery to a tournament bid. One at a time. Texas A&M this Thursday at 6 PM CT/7 PM ET on ESPN2.