For the first time in Auburn golf history, the Tigers are national champions.
No. 1 Auburn defeated No. 6 Florida State on Wednesday at the Omni La Costa Champions Course in Carlsbad, California, to secure the title. The victory over the Seminoles comes one day after freshman phenom Jackson Koivun powered the Tigers to back-to-back wins against No. 9 Virginia and Ohio State in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the NCAA Championship on Tuesday, respectively.
The five-man crew that helped Auburn beat Florida State includes Koivun, Carson Bacha, JM Butler, Josiah Gilbert and Brendan Valdes. Butler was the one to deliver the match-winning putt.
“A college career is incomplete without a national championship,” Butler said on the Golf Network broadcast. “We were lucky to win a conference and national championship. This is just for all my teammates who push me every single day. The coaches, coach (Nick) Clinard and coach (Chris) Williams, who work their butts off. Man, really my teammates are just the best.”
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Butler added: “I prepared for this moment my entire life, and I’ve worked extremely hard for this. All I had to do was get out of my own way and I knew I’d come out on top.”
Auburn is up to 23 national titles across all of its sports. Men’s swimming and diving leads the way with eight, equestrian has six, women’s swimming and diving sits at five, football claims two and women’s outdoor track and field has won it all once. And now, men’s golf is included.
An Auburn athletics team had not won a national championship since equestrian in 2019.
Koivun won the 2024 Fred Haskins Award, given annually to the top male golfer in the country, as voted by college golfers, coaches and members of the golf media. He’s the first Auburn golfer to win the award in program history, and he’s the first freshman to earn it since Justin Thomas did at Alabama in 2012.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.