Fort Worth’s golf heritage, on display last weekend at the venerated Colonial Country Club, is more than Hogan, Nelson and now Charles Schwab and his fancy 1973 blue Challenger.
In reasserting itself as the best in NAIA, Texas Wesleyan reminded all concerned that the university has its own story of consequence to tell in a city steeped in golf history.
While the PGA Tour made its annual stop along banks of the Trinity River, Texas Wesleyan’s golf team scaled the highest point of the NAIA. The Rams bested Coastal Georgia to win the NAIA national championship in Mesa, Ariz.
The national championship was Wesleyan’s seventh since the NAIA established a tournament to crown a national champion in 1952. Oklahoma City, the defending champion, has the most with 11.
“Our golf team has established a phenomenal record over a long period of time and this national championship just adds to the legacy of this program,” said Ricky Dotson, Wesleyan’s athletic director. “I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of these guys.”
No school has more individual titles than the Rams. Wesleyan alum Danny Mijovic earned shares of four consecutive individual titles from 1980-83.
This year, Victor Mann was Wesleyan’s low individual. His four-round total of 290 tied for eighth. Mann was one of three Rams in the top 15. Tyron Davidowitz was in a group at 291 and Rowan Lester, last season’s individual medalist, was tied for 14th at 293.
“As I think back over the years of qualifying for the national tournament, I’m most proud of the span of time separating the wins,” Wesleyan golf coach Bobby Cornett said. “Twenty-nine years after winning our first national championship, we get one here after being so close many times before.”
This one was timely, too. The Rams won the school’s second title 50 years ago under coach O.D. Bounds, whose name is always accompanied by the profound love and awe that make up reverence.
Cornett was a player on that team.
Bounds, who coached 33 All-Americans in 40 years as head coach, also won national championships in 1964 and 1975. Doug Higgins played on Bounds’ first team.
Cornett has now won four during his tenure, which is split up into two time periods.
He succeeded the legendary Bounds in 1986.
National crowns under Cornett began with a first in 1990, followed by 1995 and a third 20 years ago, in 1999. Ian Leggatt, a future PGA Tour professional, was on Cornett’s first team.
Cornett stepped down as head coach after the 1999 season to pursue opportunities on the National Senior Tour and the PGA Senior Tour.
Cornett returned to lead the program in 2009.
Like his former mentor, Bounds, Cornett has left a mark on the program. Under his direction, 23 players have been honored as All-Americans before this season. Since his return, Wesleyan has nine consecutive top-10 finishes at nationals.
Bounds, who took over the program in 1946 until his retirement in 1985, was the one who put the golf team on a national radar.
In addition to his three national titles, 23 times the Rams finished in the top-five of nationals under his tutorship.
Wesleyan won its initial national title in 1964, blowing out the field by 23 strokes on Fort Worth Meadowbrook’s east-side hillocks.
“Bobby and Shaun [Hensley, assistant coach] have led a special group of young men to the top of the mountain and Texas Wesleyan University, and all our fans, couldn’t be more excited,” Dotson, the AD, said.