Our senior, Jackson Van Paris, is an All American and 2nd team All-SEC (Photo courtesy of Instagram).

Our Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team, under the great Scott Limbaugh, didn’t reach our yearly goal of making the Final Four and winning it all, but, despite not having senior Gordon Sargent in the lineup for the entire NCAA Tournament, the team finished tied for 13th overall in the country at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California this past Monday.

Senior Jackson Van Paris, junior Wells Williams, who was SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, junior John Broderick, sophomore Chase Nevins and freshman Ryan Downes finished second in the NCAA Regionals at Amherst, Virginia to qualify for the 30 team NCAA Championship. The guys made it through the first three days of the Championship stroke play to qualify as one of the top 15 teams that played in day 4  on Monday. They didn’t advance in that 18 hole stroke play round to qualify for the 8 team NCAA match play field, but gave it a nice effort.

Besides JVP, none of the other guys had NCAA Championship experience. Losing Sargent was a bit painful because he won the NCAA Individual Championship his freshman year, but never quite achieved as much for us as we had anticipated he would. I’m sure he’s a great guy, but struggled in match play through the years, and just couldn’t finish the season out with us this year. He was really struggling this season. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it, maybe he was just struggling with his game, which happens. Too bad he couldn’t help us more through the years.

But Williams shot a final round 5 under, Van Paris had an awesome career for us with All American honors in 2024 and second team All SEC this season. JVP is headed to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he’ll have a shot to qualify for the PGA Tour at the end of the season by getting in the top 30 on the points list on that Triple A tour, or by the PGA Q School.  Pulling hard for JVP going forward. He gave us a great, dedicated four years.

Wells will return for his senior season and will be our leader. Chase, John and Ryan will all be back, and Chase and Ryan had some good rounds in the NCAA Championship, so all four gained valuable experience in their first time on the big stage.

And our super coach, Scott Limbaugh, has signed the No.1class in the country for 2025-26. Will Hartman of Charlotte Catholic H.S. in Charlotte, N.C., Michael Riebe of Cathedral Catholic in Encinitas, CA., and Jon Ed Steed of Enterprise (High School), Alabama are all coming on board for the 2025-26 season. All are top 20 players in the country and will add immensely to next year’s team. Jon Ed is from my wife, Beth’s, stomping grounds, Enterprise, so I’m very excited to see JES compete for us. 

So, a lot to be excited about for Coach Limbaugh’s golf team next season. National Championships are Alwaysour goal under Coach Limbaugh, and he and his players will relentlessly pursue that aspiration once again in 2025-26. Proud of what the guys accomplished this season despite the adversity with Gordon Sargent not being a part of the team.

Game time for Vanderbilt Baseball today versus Wright State is 5 P.M. CT on the SEC Network. JD Thompson will get the ball for us, and I’m sorry I don’t have this absolute intel, but I have a strong feeling Wright State will go with their senior left hander Garrett Peters. Peters is 5-0 with a 4.58 ERA. He’s walked 25 and struck out 52. He’s given up 11 doubles, two triples and 8 homers. He pitched a complete, 9- inning game last Friday Night versus Northern Kentucky allowing just one hit and one run, a solo shot, with 6 walks and 11 K’s.

But, and I had to look at this three times to make sure it was accurate, he threw 149 pitches. Wow, is that overworking a pitcher or what? Guess they had to have it to make the NCAA’s, so I assume his arm will be OK for today’s game.

JD, as you know, is our left handed junior and leader for our pitching staff who is 5-5 with a 4.06 ERA with 29 walks and 110 K’s. JD has given up 12 doubles, 2 triples and 9 long ones, and he was terrific last Thursday versus Oklahoma, going 5, giving up just 2 hits, 1 earned  run, with 3 walks and 11 punch outs.

Have full confidence in the man. Have an awesome weekend, Go Dores and I’ll keep you apprised.