NB3 Matchplay: New Mexico State, Texas survive close calls in final round

SANTA ANA PUEBLO – When Notah Begay III started planning the NB3 Matchplay, he wanted every match, every point, every hole to count. And for as wild as match play usually gets, that doesn’t always happen.

“A lot of things,” the Albuquerque native and four-time PGA Tour winner said, “have to fall into place.”

On Wednesday, they all did.

Texas ran away with the combined (men’s and women’s) university title at the inaugural NB3 Matchplay, racking up 21.5 points over three rounds to finish 7.5 points ahead of second place New Mexico State. Stanford (13.5) and New Mexico (11) placed third and fourth, respectively, in the four-team event hosted by Twin Warriors Golf Club and the NB3 Foundation.

But the men’s and women’s titles? Those were nearly decided at the buzzer.

A day after playing Texas tight and nearly sweeping Stanford, NMSU’s Aiden Thomas (4-and-3), Javier Delgadillo (1-up), Ethan Klose (4-and-3) and Alexandre Baudin (5-and-4) combined to take four of five possible points from UNM on Wednesday to win the men’s event with 10.5 points.

Texas nearly had its say, though. Led by Las Cruces native and former UNM golf coach John Fields, the Longhorns almost caught the Aggies with wins from Tommy Morrison (1-up), Christiaan Maas (4-and-2), Luke Potter (4-and-3) and Daniel Bennett (2-and-1) across five final round matches against Stanford.

But a late tie between Texas’ Jack Gilbert and Stanford’s Nathan Wang stranded the Longhorns at 10 points — kicking off an unexpected, joyous triumph for NMSU on the 18th green.

“We’re getting better at handling adversity and keeping our head high,” NMSU men’s golf coach Mike Dirks said. “And I think we learned a lot in this match play, that you play one hole at a time, and then you let it go. I think sometimes in the past, maybe last year, sometimes we carried holes with us because they weren’t match play.

“I think we learned a lot about the game of golf and ourselves, and we came out, they had their heads up high and they just marched down the fairways.”

Alvaro Portillo recorded UNM’s lone win of the day against the Aggies, taking a final round match from NMSU’s Vari Mariscal 2-up. The Lobos finished third in the men’s event with 6.5 points; Stanford placed fourth with 3.

“He’s been the key part of our team, really, through the first three events,” UNM men’s golf head coach Jake Harrington said of Portillo, a junior from Madrid. “Him and (senior Carson Herron) have been great, Carson played steady as well.

“I’m proud of the guys (and) the way they fought. None of them gave up. And we fought to the end and when the last putt was holed, we shook their hand.”

The dramatics were hardly limited to the men’s division, however. Stanford’s women took Texas down 3-and-2 in the final round, threatening to knock the Longhorns from their lead late in the day.

This time, the tie went in the Longhorns’ direction. Texas’ Cindy Hsu withstood a late charge from Stanford’s Paula Martin Sampedro – the 11th ranked women’s amateur golfer in the world – to halve the points and lock up a Longhorns win in the women’s event with 11.5 points.

Stanford finished in second with 10.5 points.

UNM women’s golf finished in third after carding a 3-and-2 win over NMSU as Maria Caparros Levin (5-and-3), Chelsea Truong (4-and-3) and Rebecca Galasso (3-and-2) all carded wins. The Lobos placed third with 4.5 points; the Aggies finished fourth with 3.5.

“Caparros, she just played steady all day,” UNM women’s golf coach Jill Trujillo said. “It was so fun, she was hitting shots, she was making putts. Same with Chelsea – she’s our little toughie.

“And she was neck and neck with (Texas’ Farah O’Keefe) yesterday, and she held our own. She can hold her own all the time.”

At the center of Wednesday’s wild finish was Begay, calling the action for Golf Channel. Tuesday and Wednesday’s rounds represented the culmination of over a year of work after he first thought of the event five years ago.

That it ended the way he hoped – where every match, every point, every hole counted – made him feel “lucky” to be a part of it.

“I couldn’t have thought of a better outcome for television, for the teams … We’re hoping to grow it from here,” Begay said. “We’re hoping to make it a sort of beacon of hope for the state, (where we) talk about everything that we love about where we live.”

As for running it back next year?

“Everybody’s positive and hopeful, so we just gotta go in and figure out what the next steps are,” Begay added. “But this was a success. And it would be great to continue to move forward.”

Take a look at the inaugural NB3 Matchplay