Camden native Cole Anderson and his Florida State Seminoles were on the brink of reaching the NCAA Division I championship pairing during their match play semifinal against Florida.
But eventual champion Florida overcame a 2-0 deficit to edge Florida State 3-2 before going on to beat Georgia Tech 3-1 in the championship round at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
FSU’s Frederik Kjettrup and Jack Bigham each won their individual matches to earn the Seminoles a 2-0 lead.
Anderson, a redshirt junior, was paired up against Florida’s Fred Biondi, who won the individual title earlier in the week by shooting a seven-under par 273.
Anderson shot a four-over par 284 to tie for 29th. He had rounds of 73-71-70-70.
He tied for 40th a year ago at the same course with an 11-over par 291.
Biondi is ranked 16th in the world among amateurs while Anderson is 58th.
Anderson had a one-up lead after 11 holes before Biondi drew the match even on the 12th hole.
Anderson had a 5-foot putt to regain the lead on the 16th hole but his putt lipped out so it remained tied.
A wayward tee shot and a poor chip shot on the 17th hole caused problems for Anderson and he missed a 12-foot putt as Biondi won the hole to take a one-up lead into the 18th.
The two halved the 18th as both registered a four, giving Biondi the one-up win.
“He played well and I played well,” said Anderson, the team captain. “Sometimes it feels like everything is going your way and things are going to work out but then they don’t. It’s sports, man.”
Later on, Florida’s John DuBois tied the match 2-2 with a one-up win over Luke Clanton and that left it up to the final match between Florida’s Ricky Castillo and FSU’s Brett Roberts.
Castillo trailed by two with just three holes to play but won the 16th and 17th holes to tie it up and the match went to a playoff where Castillo won it with a birdie putt on the 21st hole.
“We’re disappointed. We obviously would have liked things to have gone another way. But I’m proud of our team and the effort. There were a lot of positives this season. It just wasn’t in the cards,” Anderson said.
He said he is going to return for a fifth year next season and that the Seminoles will return all five starters.
“We have some unfinished business and I have some unfinished business,” Anderson said.
Florida State, picked 18th in the country in a preseason poll, advanced to the match-play by finishing in a tie for fifth after four days of stroke play competition. The Seminoles shot a six-over par 1,126.
After three days of stroke play competition, the field is whittled down from 30 to 15 teams and, following the fourth day, it is pared down to the final eight who then engage in match play competition.
Florida State beat Illinois 3-2 in the quarterfinals and Anderson won his match over first team All-Big Ten selection Matthis Bedard one-up.
Bedard tied for third in the Big Ten championship tournament.
Florida State failed to reach the match play portion of the championships last year because the Seminoles were 21st after three rounds. They were eliminated in the quarterfinals in 2021.
Topsham’s Caleb Manuel and his University of Georgia Bulldogs reached the final round of stroke play but ended in 14th place.
Manuel, a junior who transferred to Georgia from the University of Connecticut, tied for 63rd individually as he shot a 291 (70-74-73-74).
Anderson is going to play in a number of amateur tournaments this summer including the prestigious Palmer Cup from June 8-10 at the Laurel Valley Golf Club in Pennsylvania.
That will pit 12 of the top American men’s college players and 12 of the best women’s golfers against a pair of international teams in a match-play format.
He will also play in the Northeast Amateur Tournament at the Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, Rhode Island, on June 19-24.