Louisiana Tech University golf coach Jeff Jenkins had the quote of the day during the final competition of the Conference USA Men's Golf Championships at Texarkana Country Club.
Only problem is that he was wrong.
"It was looking like UAB (University of Alabama-Birmingham) was going to win," Jenkins said. "I can say with a lot of confidence that my team didn't play up to its potential most of the season, but we had shown flashes of what we could do."
Tech enjoyed one of those flashes Wednesday in match play, eliminating the University of North Texas in the morning and shocking nationally-ranked UAB for its first conference golf title since 1980. The Bulldogs won both matches, 3-2, while UAB, a big winner in the stroke play competition, cruised past the University of Texas-San Antonio in the other semifinal match, 5-0.
The first two matches to end in the title encounter were chalked up by the Blazers, and Martin Rohwer led Tech's Jacob Wyatt by three holes with four left. Wyatt's wedge shot at the short par-4 15th stopped inches from the flagstick for birdie.
That particular match appeared to be coming to an end when Wyatt's tee shot at the par-5 16th sailed over the trees into the 15th fairway. His second shot was straight at the pin, but landed over the green near the eighth fairway.
"I was able to pitch the ball about five feet and made the putt for birdie, while my opponent made par," said Wyatt, a true freshman from Bossier City, La. "I drove into the middle of the green at 17 and was able to two-putt for birdie to tie the match."
Wyatt won the final hole with a par, tying the two teams.
It was now up to Ben Robinson, who had led Rohwer most of the day. He was up two holes when the UAB golfer made birdie at 16. Leading by only one hole now, his drive went to the back of the green at the short par-4 17th. Rohwer was short of the green and left. He made a routine par, while Robinson had left his first putt 15 feet short of the cup. He buried it for the team championship, and the Tech golfers celebrated wildly on the green.
"Today was probably the most pressure I've ever felt," Wyatt said. "Texarkana Country Club is old school and very nice. The greens were tough. They've been redesigned, and there's a lot of little mounds that make it very difficult."
Another match that went down to the wire saw the Blazers' Taylor Eyster rally to beat Chuck Spears. Eyster, medalist in the stroke play after shooting an 8-under-par 64 in Sunday's first round, went from one down to one up with birdies at 14 and 15.
Victor Lange won Tech's third match, while Will Cannon won UAB's other match easily after prevailing in six of the first eight holes on his way to a 6-and-5 win.
Louisiana Tech earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Regional Championships. UAB coach Alan Murray is hoping for an at-large berth.
"I'm just super proud to be the Conference USA champions," Jenkins concluded.