Men's Golf Awards Fall: Best Team, MVP, Most Exciting Tournament

The fall season of men’s golf games is in the books and the early bird subscription period is fast approaching, so what better way than to throw out some prizes?

BEST FORUM: Auburn. Although Oklahoma State is ranked No. 1 seed, the Tigers are 3-0 against the Cowboys. Auburn was a 13-shot better than Colony, where it was runner-up, and beat Oklahoma State twice for the East Lake Cup, one of the Tigers’ three tournament titles this fall. Logan Reilly continued to elevate his game alongside Walker Cupper Josiah Gilbert while Billy Davis and Alex Holder became contributors. If Jake Albert can fully shake off his early struggles, Auburn will be favored to win its third NCAA title in four years.

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA – MAY 25: Maximilian Herendeen of the Illinois Fighting Illini reacts to the foam during the third round of the Division I Men’s Golf Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on May 25, 2025 in Carlsbad, California. (Photo by Tyler McFarland/Sports Images via Getty Images)

MORE CONFIDENCE: Max Herendeen, Illinois. It’s always a tough decision, but it’s made easier when the nation’s top-50 player is the only player drafted by the ninth team in the country. The gravity of Herendeen was already known to the Illini; when he finished outside the top 35 five times last spring, while not qualifying for the tournament that he ended up winning, he defeated Illinois, losing the Big Ten Championship and not advancing through the regional playoffs. But with Herendeen no longer affected by the pressures of being a world-class player, he’s enjoying some of golf’s best yet – a win, two top 3s and no worse than T-15 in four starts.

Breakout Forum: Augustus of Taurine. With major leagues like East Tennessee State, Santa Clara and Liberty all in the top 30, I’m still going with the Huskies, who ranked No. 18 in Thomas Sutton’s first season as head coach. Coming off two straight seasons in which Washington finished below .500, there were little expectations of improvement out of the gates. But the Huskies started the fall with an impressive third at Sahalee and then won the Saint Mary’s Invitational to cap the semester.

Breakout SPIRIT: Johnnie Clark, New Mexico. Not many people remember that the big senior was the same Oklahoma State recruit as Preston Stout. But Clark played two seasons sparingly with the Cowboys, then transferred to last season before enjoying a solid year — one win, no. 89 order. He is now seventh and owns three wins, all of which come in different countries. Clark also only dropped two players in just five starts.

The most misleading forum: Utah. Sure, Virginia, at No. 78, could be considered, but the Cavaliers also have talent in Ben James, Bryan Lee and Paul Chang, and Hugo Le Goff just hasn’t materialized yet. But the Utes are four places lower, despite boasting the number 10 game in the region of Gabriel Palacios – a great story on the comeback trail. Sergio Jimenez capped the event with T-7 in the William Cup, as expected, but after two tops, it has been a very frustrating few months for head coach Garrett Clegg.

Dislike of trust: Connor Graham, Texas Tech. Fresh off playing in his third Walker Cup, Graham is currently ranked No. 262 and is without a top 35 finish in three starts. He has only done birdies all six semesters with about a third of those going around the Olympic fields.

BEST GAME FROM THE FORUM: Stay in Oklahoma at Sahalee. The Cowboys are ranked No. 1 largely because of the way they started the fall – a 28-point victory over Florida at Player Sahalee. Eric Lee’s run led four Cowboys to T-5 or better as Oklahoma State finished at 4 under, the team’s only par on a tight, difficult layout. No team scored more points than the Cowboys did this week (approx. 134).

BEST GAME FOR THE ARMY GAME: Ryder Cowan at the Gopher Invitational. It wasn’t a tough field, but the Oklahoma senior proved that you can score big points (approx. 178) when you crush the field. Cowan shot 13 under, Georgia’s Mason Howell hit six and beat the field by nearly 22 shots. Georgia Tech’s Albert Hansson nearly topped Cowan’s performance recently at Steelwood, shooting 20 under, going through three wins and earning just over 161 points.

GAME GAME: The intercollegiate oak fell. Looking at the final leaderboard – Arkansas, Illinois and South Carolina all tied and Tennessee finished a shot behind – only tells part of the story. The Gamecocks shot the best of the final round (4 under), picked up two birdies on the difficult par-3 17th, to move five spots off the lead and into a 4 over position with Illinois, which got four birdies from Dane Huddleston on the back nine, as many as the rest of the Illini scores. Tennessee was in the final three, but with Jackson Herrington out with an injury, the Vols had no margin for error. The final birdies were helped by Tyler Watts and Rudy Sautron, but in the end it was enough. Lev Grinberg turned in a 5-under 67 to lead Arkansas to a co-victory, which was capped by a 40-footer caught by Illinois’ Max Herendeen for the final score of the match.

BIGGEST TURBO: Oral Roberts wins The Cleric. As Jon Reehoorn of The Differential pointed out, the Golden Eagles were the No. 139 in the country with a 4-32-1 record before scoring a 10-point victory over a field that included then-fifth-ranked New Mexico. Arguably the biggest upset was with No. 103 UC Davis 2016 Stanford intercollegiate win over No. 1 USC and No. 8 Stanford.

ANNOYING TERMINATION: Finn Koelle is a walk-off pitcher at Sahalee. Senior Washington Sahalee not only won, he made one of the top two-shot chances of the fall when he made an ace on the 54th hole, the 214-yard, par-3 ninth. Now, Koelle’s closing 66 put her well ahead of the final group, but that doesn’t mean she was any less tired at the end.

Men’s golf awards fall: Best team, MVP, most exciting tournament

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