The Clemson Tigers won the 2003 NCAA Championship at the Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the home course of the Oklahoma State golf team and the orange clad Cowboys’ fans filled the gallery.

Greg Jones remembered he liked seeing all the orange around the course, but there was one problem. “It wasn’t Clemson orange,” he recalled.

When the 2003 national championship team was presented between the first and second quarter of the Tigers football game with North Carolina the right kind of orange clad fans cheered for them.

“It was pretty amazing being on the field and hearing the crowd,” said Ben Duncan. “It was really cool,” he said.

The team, which some observers believe is the best college team of the 21st century so far, got together for the 20th anniversary of the championship and it was like they had not been apart.

“They didn’t miss a beat,” said the coach of the 2003 Tigers, Larry Penley. “Everybody just seemed to pick up where they left off a long time ago,” he said.

The 2003 team and their families celebrated with a special dinner at the Shepherd Hotel in downtown Clemson. They tailgated before the game at the golf facility and then over to the game to be presented between the first and second quarters.

The Tigers had finished third and second in the NCAA championship the two previous years and with most of the same team back for another try Clemson was ranked as the pre-season number one team in the country.

DJ Trahan, who was unable to attended the reunion, was the top college player in the country after his junior season, being named the Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus award winner.

Trahan was a lock to step directly to the tee on the PGA Tour. Instead, Trahan decided he had some unfinished business at Clemson.

“When I decided to come back it wasn’t to try to win a championship or hope to win a championship. It was to win a championship and everybody on the team had the same goal,” he said.

The Tigers won the ACC championship and then the regional event in Auburn and when they claimed the NCAA championship, the 2003 Tigers became the first team in NCAA history to accomplish the hat trick. A Conference, Regional and National Championships.

“That team brought it every week and we won the championship on the hardest golf course I have ever seen,” said Penley.

Mike Holder, the golf coach at Oklahoma State set up Karsten Creek about as difficult as possible to give his team a home course advantage.

After Clemson won the 2003 NCAA Championship The Golf Club published a special section.. Over the years due to computer program changes the electronic version of the section was lost, We reconstructed the pieces and added some additional information. You can download the section as a pdf file by clicking on the picture above.

The Tigers and Cowboys battled through the first three rounds to set up an amazing finish.

The championship would come down to the final pairing of Jack Ferguson and the Cowboys’ Hunter Mahan, the winner of the 2003 Haskins Award as the most outstanding college golfer.

The Tiger sophomore from Seneca’s double bogey on his 17th hole opened the door for Mahan, but Ferguson closed out the player of the year with a solid par on the final hole for a two shot win for Clemson.

“We had the guy we wanted in the place we wanted him on the last day,” said Penley after the win.

The final scores were among the highest ever in a national championship. Clemson finished at 39-over par and amazingly won the championship without a player in the top-15 individually.

Trahan earned first team All-American honors for the second straight year. Ferguson was a second team selection, while Hendrix was a third team honoree.

After a second place finish in 2001 and a third place finish in 2002, Clemson coach Larry Penley’s team fulfilled Trahan’s charge and the Tigers coach was feeling relieved.

“I remember nothing but relief. We had been so close,” Penley would say years after the championship. “It was long overdue and a long time coming,” he added.

At the football game, the four of the five starters were joined by the rest of the team on the field.

Brian Duncan, Nick Biershenk, Brent Delahoussaye, Martin Catilioto, Stephen Poole and Micheal Sims got to enjoy the celebration and the appreciative cheering from the Clemson crowd.

Besides being the first team to win a conference, regional and national championship, the 2003 Tigers were all home grown. Every player on the team was from South Carolina.

Duncan, who a few years after the national championship joined with other Tiger golf alumni to found the very successful Tiger Golf Gathering.

The bi-annual fund raising event helped build the Tigers golf facility, named for Penley.

After the weekend with the team, Duncan was putting on his organizing hat once again, this time for the championship team.

“I’ve kept up with a lot of the guys, but we don’t see each other very often. I think we are going to try to get together and tailgate for a game again.” said Duncan.

Penley, who a few weeks earlier was inducted into the Clemson Hall of Fame is already looking forward to a 25th celebration.

“I think I enjoyed seeing the families of the guys as much as anything. We all had such a great time we are looking to do it again for the 25th,” concluded Penley.