Building Up Grit – Men’s Golf

Written by: Ben Winterrowd

Orange: The Experience Magazine | V17 , Issue 2

The 2025-26 Clemson Men’s Golf team is young but features a pair of senior leaders that have been through a lot in their careers at Clemson. Thomas Higgins and Lucas Augustsson nearly led Clemson to an ACC Championship a season ago. Now they are poised to have a strong spring and return to the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson entered the second round of stroke play at the 2025 ACC Championship in 12th place, but the Tigers had a tournament best 12-under par team score over the last 36 holes to finish in a tie for third with Florida State. It was a remarkable comeback by Head Coach Jordan Byrd’s squad to make match play. The Tigers were ranked 56th nationally entering the tournament, 12th among ACC teams.

Lucas Augustsson turned in a final round 69 and Thomas Higgins finished stroke play in 21st place. In quarterfinal play against SMU, Higgins clinched the overall match with a 2-up victory over Enrique Dimayuga. Higgins went two-up through four holes, then Dimayuga came back to tie the match after eight holes. The golfers were either tied or one hole apart until the last hole when Higgins won to win 2-up.

Augustsson was well on his way to victory at the number-five match, leading two-up with two to play. Areen Aggarwal of SMU actually led by one-up through 13 holes, then Augustsson won the fifth, sixth and seventh holes to go two-up. But when Higgins gave Clemson the team victory, the match was suspended.

In an absolute grinder of a match, Augustsson took Virginia’s Bryan Lee to 21 holes before falling 3-2 to the Cavaliers in the ACC semifinals in Bowling Green, Ky.

Clemson had previously been 0-5 against Virginia in stroke play events during the year, but all five of the matches in the semifinals, Clemson took Virginia to at least the 16th hole. Three reached the 18th hole and the deciding match went 21 holes.

Higgins had the most noteworthy victory of the day, and perhaps the most noteworthy individual accomplishment of the season by a Clemson golfer. The junior defeated Virginia’s top player Ben James, 1-up. He made a 10-foot par putt on the 17th hole to keep a 1-up lead, then tied James on the 18th hole to win the match 1-up. James was the 13th ranked player in college golf at the time.

Lucas Augustsson and Virginia’s Bryan Lee went into extra holes to decide the overall team match. The two players tied the first and second playoff holes, then Lee won the third extra hole, the 235 par 3 third hole on the course. Both players hit their drives into green side bunkers. Lee was able to hit his approach to within 5 feet of the pin and Augustsson hit his shot over the green. He later conceded the hole to Lee and Virginia was off to the championship match.

Augustsson reflected on his moments during the ACC Championship last season and how that has translated in helping lead the team this season, “I learned that the difference between me and the best players in the world is fractional, and I can beat them any day. We are building something special here at Clemson and we hit the ground running with last year’s team. We are better than our current ranking and that will show in the end of the year.”

“We can compete with any team out there and I can compete with any individual out there,” said Higgins. “It was brilliant experience to compete against guys who went on to play in the National Championship match. It gave us all a bunch of confidence and taught us to not be fearful of these moments but attack them.

Augustsson and Higgins have learned a lot about themselves in the process of leading as upperclassmen. “I think to be transparent and honest goes a long way,” said Augustsson. “With that, always be available to help each other grow and never be scared to ask for help. Coach Byrd always tells us to go to the guy that is best in a specific area whatever that might be. Swing, chip or putting and try to see what makes him great just there.”

“It’s important to build a team culture and team comradery,” said Higgins. We’ve had a great bond on the road, and it’s shown in our golf. It’s the most fun I’ve had on the road as a team here. We get a lot of enjoyment out of competing together. We collectively feel like we can do some great things and compete for championships.”

Higgins continued, “I’ve gotten advice from lots of different people, including Lucas. He’s a great leader and leads well. I try to be like him. I’ve had talks with coaches and the Tiger Leadership Program as a freshman and a sophomore helped quite a bit.”

Clemson finished the fall schedule with a record of 43-21-2, including a tournament championship at the Marquette Intercollegiate at Erin Hills. The Tigers finished third at the Bryan Brothers Collegiate in Columbia, S.C and placed second at the season-opening Myrtle Beach Golf Trips Intercollegiate.

Augustsson has two top 10 finishes heading into the spring, while Higgins has three and both lead Clemson in that department. They have combined for 10 rounds in the 60’s.

Both seniors are not short on what they expect from themselves and the rest of the team this spring. “My expectations are high, but my expectations on our processes are even higher. That will show how far we can go this year. But the spring is long and getting to match play in Carlsbad is possible.”

“We go out there and be a bunch of dogs,” said Higgins. “We talked about that in the fall. We just keep fighting. We didn’t display that very well in our last event of the fall, so we we’ve washed that now and looking ahead to compete as hard as we can this spring. We know when we play good golf we can win tournaments. We can’t leave any shots on the golf course; we learned that lesson in last year’s ACC Championship.”