The eighth-ranked Auburn men’s golf team is off to a great start this season, finishing top-five in all four events this fall thanks in part to a freshman class that has hit the ground running in their first few collegiate tournaments.
Brandon Mancheno, Wells Padgett, and Andrew Kozan have all cracked the starting lineup this season and lead a class that also includes Jake Milanowski and Marcus Svensson and was recently ranked fourth in “Freshman impact” by Golfweek.
They may be young, but they certainly aren’t lacking confidence.
“I don’t think there’s any freshman class better than us at any school,” Mancheno said.
That’s a bold statement, but Mancheno has played well enough to back it up. The Jacksonville, Florida native finished in the top 25 in three of four events this fall and had a chance to win the Trinity Forest Invitational before finishing in a tie for third. He also led the Tigers with a T9 finish at the Jerry Pate Invitational.
“I had a chance to win going into the last day and didn’t get it done,” Mancheno said. “But it was definitely a good learning experience for me. I wasn’t playing well at all on my front nine that day, but I got it back to even par the last nine, so I stayed patient and ended up coming in third. I was pretty happy.”
Padgett finished T44 in his first college event at the Carpet Capital Collegiate, but improved throughout the fall and notched his first top-ten at the Tavistock Invitational, finishing tied for ninth.
Padgett credits better practice habits for his successful fall season and notes that his practice schedule in college is much different than at home.
“In college you have to be diligent with your time,” Padgett said. “You have 3-4 hours after school instead of back home when you could practice until 7:00. [The key] is practicing smarter. Just doing what you need to do.”
Adjusting to college is difficult for all freshmen, but Svensson faces some additional challenges. The Halmstad, Sweden native has had to adjust to a new language, different school system, and being away from family while also managing school and golf.
“Golf is golf. You hit the same shots in Sweden as you do here,” Svensson said. “A lot of people say you need to get your first semester to settle in and things start to slow down for you. That’s been key for me, so I think it’s going to be better from here on.”
All five freshmen are quick to credit the upperclassmen for helping them adjust to college golf. Whether it’s breaking bad on-course habits like dropping the club after a poor shot, showing them how to be more disciplined in practice, or just giving advice on life, the oldest Tigers lead by example.
“We’ve grown up a lot in just these few months we’ve been here,” Padgett said. “They’ve taught us how to grow up and be men. In our junior careers we’d struggle with adversity, but now we are better about that. And it’s only going to get better from here.”
Even though they’ve been on the team for just three months, Padgett and company constantly refer to their team as a family. That family atmosphere was the driving factor behind their decisions to play for Auburn.
“Something cool that we have here that I know a lot of schools don’t have is that the people that aren’t traveling are very supportive of the guys that are,” Padgett said. “We are honestly a family here. We love each other and we’re going to fight all season and every year that we’re here.”
Even within the family, the freshmen appear to be a particularly tight-knit group.
“I think we’re a small family inside the family,” Svensson said.
As a top-ten team, Auburn consistently faces some of the best teams in the country, but their toughest competition might be themselves.
Kozan credits pressure-packed qualifying rounds with helping him handle the nerves that come with college golf.
“I think it’s helped that our qualifying is so challenging,” Kozan said. “We’re used to the pressure situations. So if we get a putt we have to make in a tournament, we already know we’ve done it before in qualifying.”
That confidence will bode well for the spring season, which begins February 1-3 in Waikoloa, Hawaii. The Tigers had a successful fall, but Padgett insists the best is yet to come.
“We haven’t even played our best,” Padgett said. “We haven’t put together three good rounds, and yet we’ve finished second twice, third and fifth. We’ve placed pretty well and played against really good teams. If we play to our full potential, there’s no team in the country that can beat us. We know that.”
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