Men's Golf Rewrites the Record Books
Hartsville, SC- The 2023-24 edition of Coker men's golf that finished tied for third in the Stroke Play portion of the NCAA DII National Championships last month broke almost all of the school's records along the way.
The senior-laden Cobras, under the direction of third-year head coach John Hackney, had a lot of good showings throughout the season while playing one of the nation's toughest schedules and finished 17th in the final NCAA poll. The same five guys played in all but the first tournament. Super senior Killian Ryan of England (he missed the first event with an injury), senior Caleb Tidd of Indiana, senior Jonathan Hallinger of Sweden, senior Aaron Teece of Texas and junior Derek McGlaughlin of Pennsylvania comprised the record-setting squad.
Coker placed in the top 5 in all four fall tournaments while compiling a team average of 287.08, which was 1.3 strokes over par for its low four individuals. Four of its 12 rounds were under par, with the Cobras firing 8-under par twice. The school record is still 10-under par, shot twice in 2008-09 by Tommy Baker's teams. Baker is now the women's head coach at James Madison University.
In the spring, when the Cobras played in eight 54-hole events, they averaged 288.4 in the first rounds, 285.7 in the second rounds and 294.9 in the third rounds for a spring average of 289.7.
"We were in the mix after the 36-hole Mondays in almost every tournament," Hackney said, "but just weren't able to close the deal on Tuesdays. But, our guys were resilient and stayed positive, knowing how good they could play, and it paid off down the stretch."
The Cobras, who averaged just 1-over par through 36 holes in their three postseason events, finishing 2nd at the South Atlantic Conference Championships to the No. 2 team in the nation (Lincoln Memorial), 2nd at the South-Southeast Super Regional to the No. 1 team in the nation (North Georgia) on their home course and then tied for 3rd (out of 20 teams) at the National Championships on the Crooked Cat Course at Orlando County National behind No. 7 West Florida and No. 6 Oklahoma Christian. Coker finally closed fast at Nationals, making five birdies on its last two holes to shoot one of the best final rounds of the championships at 279 (-5).
The Cobras lost the tiebreaker by one shot to Central Oklahoma (was a compilation of drop scores for each of the three rounds) and thus got the fourth seed for the 8-team Medal Match Play. North Georgia, the consensus No. 1 team in the country all season, was in jeopardy of not making the top eight but played its last three holes at 9-under to qualify for the match play in the 5th spot. Coker and North Georgia were in a dead heat at 2-2-1 late in the opening nine holes, but the Nighthawks moved ahead in two matches around the turn and held on the rest of the way to win 4-1. Tidd captured the Cobras' only victory. McGlaughlin and Hallinger each lost by just two strokes.
"Myself and Coach Dan (Schmotzer) believed from the beginning that this veteran team could do some special things this season," said Hackney, who has been coaching at the DII level for 26 years. "These guys would regularly go under par in practice and they posted 25 rounds in the 60s this season, so I expected them to rise to the occasion. In this era of the transfer portal, we had a team of guys who had played together for three or four years, so they were like brothers, and would fight to the finish for each other in every round. That made our Cobras unique. Only Aaron, who transferred in for his senior season, had not been a part of the growth over the last few years."
Hallinger and Tidd were named to the DII Honorable Mention All-America team, joining Chris Taylor (2003) and Jake Murphy (2011) as the only All-Americans in Coker golf history. Coker's only other appearance as a team in the National Championship was in 2006.
Tidd and Hallinger tied for medalist honors at the SAC Championship at 1-over for 54 holes and then Tidd prevailed in a playoff to become the first individual SAC Champion in school history. Those two young men wound up with the lowest two season averages ever at 71.81 for Hallinger (.56 over par) and 72.03 (.78 over par) for Tidd. Ryan has the 5th (72.77), 6th (72.62) and 10th (72.73) best averages in school history. McGlaughlin posted at 73.79 average and Teece was at 74.39.
Other individual season records set by the Cobras in 2023-24 were:
Tidd and Hallinger tied with 17 of 36 rounds at par or better, passing Murphy, who had 15-of-31 in 2010-11.
Tidd and Hallinger tied with 108 birdies, with McGlaughlin (97) and Ryan (95) third and fourth. Teece is 7th with 89.
Hallinger is first in eagles with eight.
Team records set were:
Lowest scoring average (288.64), which was 3.64 over par (2.36 better than Hackney's 2021-22 team).
Par or better rounds at 14-of-36 (39 percent). The 2022 and 2023 teams are second and third on this list.
Birdies (497). The 2023 (373) and 2022 (354) teams are second and third.
Eagles (20). The 2022 team is second with 16.
Low 54-hole total (-6 at 846) in the National Championships. Four of the six lowest 54-hole scores were recorded this season.
Jake Murphy still holds the record for low 54 holes at -11, with five of the next eight spots held by Hallinger, Tidd or Ryan.
Career records:
Hallinger (72.71), Ryan (72.94) and Tidd (73.41) have the three lowest career averages.
Ryan (46-of-126), Hallinger (36-of-91) and Tidd (34-of-107) have the most par or less rounds.
Hallinger (13) and Tidd (10) lead in eagles.
"In retrospect, it was an incredible year, as evidenced by all the records our young men set," Hackney said. "We were very disappointed that we didn't come home with the NCAA title, but it is very hard to even get there. We outplayed most of the best teams in the country, so we can take pride in that. We felt we were easily a top-10 team, but the NCAA had a new ranking system this season that wasn't the best, and they are still tweaking it this summer.
"What we do know is that this was the best season in Coker history … and that's something our guys can cherish for the rest of their lives. They earned it with a lot of hard work. Coach Dan and I were honored to lead this group, and we wish our seniors the best as they move on."