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Braver on the rise in time for match play

USC freshman pulls out of slump to help lead team into new NCAA format

Written by BOB GILLESPIE

bgillespie@thestate.com
Posted on 05.26.09
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Barring a pre-teen injury, Sam Braver’s freshman year of college could have turned out quite differently. Instead of being part of USC’s golf team in this week’s NCAA Championship, the Roswell, Ga., native might be chasing a national title in another sport — tennis — and for another college, Oklahoma.

Timing is everything, though. And there might be no better year for the Gamecocks’ rookie to be headed to Toledo, Ohio’s Inverness Club.

The top 30 teams and six individuals from six NCAA regionals (including USC, which tied for second in Sorrento, Fla., and Clemson’s Kyle Stanley, top individual at Galloway, N.J.) will be test subjects beginning today for a new championship format. Instead of a traditional 72-hole, stroke-play tournament, the top eight teams after 54 holes will begin match play, going head-to-head (and player vs. player) through three elimination rounds to determine the champion.

Many college coaches, including USC’s Bill McDonald and Clemson’s Larry Penley, dislike the unfamiliar format. Braver can’t wait.

“Personally, I love it. If we make it to that, I love match play,” he said. “Because my dad’s family all played tennis, I always had that one-on-one mentality, just me and someone else.

“Anything can happen in match play. I love being in that situation.”

It doesn’t occur as often for Braver as it might have. His dad, Joe, played college tennis at Oklahoma — father and son are “huge” Sooners football fans and attended last season’s Orange Bowl together — and Sam focused on tennis and baseball until he was 12. Then a stress fracture in his right shoulder prevented him from making an overhead motion for three years.

“That ruled out those sports,” he said. “So I started working harder on golf, and here I am today.”

Braver was a two-time all-state high school golfer at Roswell’s Centennial High, and ranked as high as 15th nationally by Golfweek in 2008. With Oklahoma’s golf program in disarray — both men’s and women’s coaches recently resigned — he chose USC over Arizona (“too far away”) and Georgia Tech (“too close”).

His Gamecocks career got off to a rough start, though. Braver “got a little off-track with his swing-plane mechanics last summer,” McDonald said, and he failed to earn a tournament start last fall.

He finally made the starting five in March, tying for 11th at the Schenkel Invitational (one of USC’s four tournament victories in 2008-09). But he fell back into old habits and struggled in his next three events.

The nadir came at the SEC Championship, where Braver shot 82-82-76 to finish 60th — dead last. “I put too much pressure on myself,” he said. “I thought I was out of it (for the regional), but thankfully, the coaches gave me a second chance,” and he beat out senior Patrick Cunning in an 18-hole qualifier.

“I just tried to take golf off my shoulders,” he said. “I like to play free and laid-back, just go out and have fun.” In the regional, after an opening 74, Braver had rounds of 68 (USC’s best that day) and 70 as the Gamecocks rallied to clinch a spot at Inverness.

“The final round, the coaches wouldn’t tell me where we stood,” Braver said. “(Assistant) coach (Mike) Burcin kept saying, ‘Oh, we’re doing fine.’ Then I was in the 18th fairway when (teammate Mark) Silvers made his putt for 64, and all the pressure was off me. I felt great after that.”

As did McDonald, who earlier this season wondered who, if anyone, would fill out his lineup behind Silvers and brothers George IV and Wesley Bryan. In junior Patrick Rada and Braver, he got his answer.

“You could tell at regionals (that) he’s starting to ‘get it’,” McDonald said of Braver’s mechanics. “That 68 saved us. And it’s apparent he can handle big-time situations. He played with (Florida’s top player Billy) Horschel at the Schenkel and wasn’t intimidated at all.”

That’s rarely been a problem. In 2003, the year of his shoulder injury, Braver and his father attended the NCAA Championship at Oklahoma State’s Karsten Creek course (and saw Clemson win the title). “Being out there, I was amazed,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is incredible.’”

Braver laughed. “At that age, I was thinking, ‘Man, I’ll never be here,’” he said. “Now I get a chance to play in it.”

All that, and match play, too. Timing is everything.

Reach senior writer Bob Gillespie at (803) 771-8304.

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