Tide goes back to back

Phenomenal freshman Robby Shelton, who accepted the Phil Mickelson national freshman of the year award before yesterday’s national championship match against Oklahoma State, proved his recognition was merited as he birdied six of the final seven holes to help the Crimson Tide golf team capture its second consecutive national championship with their 4-1 over Ok State in the championship match play event at the Praire Dunes Course in Hutchinson, Kansas. While the Alabama football program has been the standard bearer in college football for the past six years, the Alabama golf team has established their own dynasty the last two years in college golf. Shelton played amazing golf and punctuated an incredible back nine with a 15-foot birdie putt for the win on 18 to clinch  the match over Oklahoma State freshman Zachary Olsen, 1 Up. Senior Bobby Wyatt won at No.1 over Talor Gooch, 3 & 2. Then in another incredibly clutch performance, Trey Mullinax, another senior, sank a beautiful side-hill, downhill 25-foot eagle putt with the pin in on No.17 to clinch his match and the national title for the Crimson Tide. The first team to three points won the match and Mullinax clinched the third point for the Tide after wins by Wyatt and Shelton. Senior Corey Whitsett won his match 2 &1 and sophomore Tom Lovelady, despite comine back from five down on the back side, lost his match to the outstanding Wyndham Clark of Ok. State, 3 and 1.

What’s pretty neat about this is that four of the five starters on the national championship team hail from Alabama. Wyatt is from Mobile, Shelton is from Wilmer, just outside of Mobile, Mullinax is from Gardendale and Lovelady is from Mountain Brook. Whitsett is from Houston.

Coach Jay Seawell has produced a phenomenal program in Tuscaloosa. He quotes S a lot in his interviews, which is interesting. It appears that he relies on S’s national championship experience in his coaching. In his 13th year, Seawell has led his teams to four SEC titles, 11 NCAA tournament appearances and seven NCAA championship berths. The top 30 teams compete for the NCAA championship with the top eight teams qualifying by stroke play to play in the eight-team match play finals. ‘Bama lost barely to Texas in the national championship match in 2012. That was a Texas team with a young 18-year old player named Jordan Spieth. We could be hearing Robby Shelton’s name in the same breath as Spieth’s in the next two or three years. Shelton is a spectacular player.

Another thing that Seawell–who is a first class man and incredibly fine coach– said was that he’s very proud that his three seniors just earned  their degrees three weeks ago. Seawell has established a dynasty in the classroom as well with many of his players earning academic awards as well as playing  awards.

Really an incredible coach and an incredible group of kids. Something Crimson Tide fans should be very proud of.

Seawell was asked after the match if he could three-peat. He was kind of taken aback by the question because his seniors and their teammates had just won a national title, so he handled it with total class saying he and his guys were going to enjoy this, honor his seniors with the victory, see them go pro as soon as possible, and start thinking about next year in a few days or a week. He also said Coach Saban might hit the reporter if he asked him that right after the game if/when he wins another national title. Let Seawell and his players enjoy it. They deserve it. Wow, what a program.

Tide baseball in the NCAA regionals this weekend in Tallahassee Regional with No.1 Florida State. The Tide, the second seeded team in the regional, will play No.3 Kennesaw State at noon ET./11 AM CT on ESPN3.  The Tide is 34-22 and Kennesaw State is 37-21. FSU (43-15) plays Georgia Southern (39-21) at 6 PM ET/5 CT on ESPN 3. The winners play at 5 PM ET/4 CT on Saturday. Coverage not announced yet, but ESPN3 will definitely have it.

The Tide football cranking up summer work as they prepare for the 2014 season. Jacob Coker will be on campus June 1st and his development will be a key topic of discussion come August.

The Tide athletic program, led by the golf team this spring, and of course, football in the fall, is elite.