The premature ending to spring athletics due to the coronavirus was a shocking sudden conclusion for all involved, but it especially came at the most inopportune time for Jacob Bridgeman.
The current Clemson standout was heading into the final stretch of his sophomore year with abundant momentum. He not only won the final event of the abbreviated season posting 12 under (67-66-65) at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in Aiken, but equaled the second-lowest 54-hole score in Clemson history.
His four-shot win over teammate Turk Pettit tied the fourth-largest margin of victory at the program. The Tigers also won the event with a second-consecutive top-five finish in team play.
And then just like that, the season was over.
“Pretty much everyone on our team was playing well, all shot a low round, and that was probably one of the best weeks I’ve ever played,” said Bridgeman, who regularly plays out of Inman’s Woodfin Ridge. “So we were looking to make a charge in the spring and were hosting the (NCAA) regional. Playing a regional at your home course when you’re a really good team is almost like an automatic bid (into the national championship event). So that was real disappointing because we had such a big advantage I thought playing at our home course. But what can you do.”
As for his individual win, Bridgeman said, “I was hitting it awesome, putting great and coach (Larry) Penley felt I had total control of my golf ball and I agreed. I never really felt like that before, maybe a few years ago, but a couple days after that tournament is when we found out everything was shutting down. We took it pretty bad. We were all out playing one day and were told everything was canceled and it was really depressing.”
Bridgeman added, “We went to dinner and sat there not saying a word because we really didn’t know what to do. At the time my roommate Will (Nottingham) was a senior and we felt he was done, so it was really hard for us. Thank goodness he gets another year and is coming back.”
The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to student-athletes competing in spring sports.
Bridgeman led Clemson and was seventh in the ACC with a 70.14 scoring average and finished worse than 18th just twice in seven starts. He only posted two tournaments that were over par and his other five starts he was no worse than 4 under in each. He earned honorable mention All-American honors from the Golf Collegiate Golf Coaches Association.
“Most every tournament I had one or two good rounds and then kind of a mediocre one that kind of kept me from winning,” Bridgeman said. “It was a really solid year. Wish I could’ve played and finished better at certain places but finishing with a win was pretty exciting.”
Bridgman has been living in Clemson off-campus and trying to get practice in as much as possible during the pandemic closures to many practice facilities including the school’s Walker Course range. His summer tournament schedule has so far been uninterrupted as he’d planned on playing only four tournaments, none of which have been canceled.
He wasn’t going to play until the July 15 Southern Amateur outside Dallas, Texas. He then planned on playing two other July events before the U.S. Amateur in August at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind.
Currently Clemson’s active leader in career stroke average at 71.21, Bridgeman enters the summer at No. 33 in the Golfweek/Sagarin college rankings and No. 141 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. While he’s been a regular in Clemson’s starting lineup each of his two seasons, Bridgeman was a different player this year.
“I got a lot smarter with how to play,” he said. “I think that was the biggest thing for me, getting a lot stronger mentally. And I got stronger physically, too, started working out a lot. I made my body to where I could trust it over and over to do what I wanted to do and then my mind was strong enough if I got into a bad spot I knew what my strengths and weaknesses were and how to approach different situations.”
