Interview with Clemson senior Bryson Nimmer about his third place finish at the ACC tournament

Nimmer 3rd, Tigers 7th at ACC Championship

Bryson Nimmer shot a final round 4-under par 68 to finish in third place at the ACC Championship. (GolfCLub photo)

Bryson Nimmer continued his outstanding play, but the Clemson senior didn’t get a lot of help from the rest of the lineup as the Tigers finished the ACC Championship in seventh place.

Nimmer, who has won four tournaments this year, held the early clubhouse lead. His four-under par 68 tied with three other golfers for the best final round at The Old North State Club near New London, NC.

The Tiger golfer from Bluffton became only the third Clemson player to earn 4 top-10 finishes in ACC Tournament play.

The tournament was scheduled to be played from Thursday to Saturday, but heavy rain forced a format change. The first two rounds were played on Thursday to escape an expected rain-out on Friday.

No golf was played on Friday during the worst of the weather and play resumed on Saturday morning.

While there was no rain the wind and cold temperatures made the final round seem more like a tournament in February rather than late in April.

Nimmer closed out his 4-under par round jamming in a 20 foot birdie putt on the final hole to finish with a 205 total.

“I had left putts on 16 and 17 short,” said Nimmer. “I wasn’t going to leave it short. It was either going in or I would be three putting the final hole,” he said.

Florida State golfer John Pak shot a final round 3-under par 69 to move past second round leader Andy Ogletree from Georgia Tech and held off Nimmer to claim medalist honors.

“I had a good day today. It was windy and I was pretty happy with a 68. This tournament is very important to me. The ACC is always important and I just had to focus a little more,” Nimmer said.

Nimmer’s success in the ACC tournament matched that of past Clemson stars. John Engler, who won the 2001 individual championship and Jonathan Byrd each finished in the top-10 four times, just as Nimmer.

Ironically, Nimmer’s father Tony, was the first Clemson golfer to earn 3 top-10 ACC Tournament finishes during his playing days at Clemson from 1980-1983.

After the first round it would have been hard to imagine the Clemson team would finish the tournament in seventh place.

The team opened the tournament with a 13-under par 275 and only trailed Duke by four-shots going into the second 18 holes of the day.

“I really felt like we had the momentum going,” said Clemson coach Larry Penley. “It was going really good and it stayed good until we had an hour and a half stretch that was about as bad of golf as we played all year and that was our entire tournament,” said the Clemson coach.

The Tigers shot a 296 total in the second round to drop back into a 6th place tie with Virginia Tech.

With Georgia Tech standing at 30-under par after the first 36 holes the Tigers were left to only playing to move up a few spots instead of playing to win the championship.

“The second round took the life out of us. We knew then after we got that far behind Georgia Tech  we were not going to win, before that we were right in it,” said Penley.

The Tigers 7th place finish will not keep them out of the NCAA Regionals, but if the team does not play better Penley believes it will be difficult for the Clemson to advance to the national finals.

Nimmer is one of three golfers who earned four top-10 finishes in the ACC Championship. (The GolfClub photo)

“We have not played well this spring, Bryson has, but we have not. It is not like we have been on a trend  upward, we have not played well for awhile,” said the coach.

Georgia Tech won the team title by 15 shots over Virginia. Wake Forest finished third with Duke and Florida State tied for fourth and NC State taking the sixth spot in front of the Tigers.

“Bryson is playing great, but we can’t get him any help. It really is disappointing because we have got some really good players. We have got to find something between now and the Regionals or we will be watching the finals,” concluded Penley.

The NCAA Men’s Regionals begin on may 12th and will be played at six locations.

Clemson coach Larry Penley reviews his teams performance at the ACC Tournament below

Complete scoring at http://www.golfstat.com

Clemson women finish 7th

Ana Paula Valdes earned the top finish for a Tiger at the ACC Women’s championship. Valdes finished in a tie for 20th. (GolfClub Photo)

Clemson posted their best round of the 54 hole tournament to move up three spots and finish in seventh place at the ACC Women’s Championship.

The Tigers improved by 16 shots over their first round score to finish at 36-over par.

Wake Forest won the team title by 8 shots over Florida State.

Emilia Migliaccio from Wake Forest won the individual title by 2-shots over teammate Siyun Liu.

Ana Paula Valdes was the top Clemson golfer in the final standings. The Tiger junior finished in a tie for 20th place after shooting a 1-under par final round 71.

Alice Hewson finished her final round at 2-over par to finish up in a tie for 23rd place.

Women’s NCAA Regional tournaments begin on May 6th at 4 sites.

Complete scoring at http://www.golfstat.com