GREENSBORO, Ga. – Steve Spurrier wasn’t happy with his round of golf Tuesday afternoon, but he salvaged a little bit of pride with a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole to edge Clemson on the final leader board.
As Spurrier walked off the 18th green of the Oconee Course adjacent the Ritz-Carlton at Reynolds Plantation, he asked former Tigers quarterback Steve Fuller, “What’d you shoot?”
“Six-under,” Fuller replied.
“Woo, we nipped you by one,” Spurrier said, flashing maybe his only smile of the round.
Spurrier and playing partner Sterling Sharpe, an All-American wide receiver at South Carolina in 1987, finished tied for third at 7-under par in the Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge. The duo, which won the event in 2008 and 2009, picked up a $40,000 check for the school’s scholarship fund in the process.
“We didn’t play well as far as the way we normally do,” Sharpe said. “We usually protect each other pretty well. The one thing we have to do coming back here is we have to putt a little better.”
The ultra-competitive Spurrier wasn’t upset that he lost but that he played so badly, he said.
“I hit a lot of uglies today,” he said. “The way I hit the ball, I don’t deserve to win anything. I need to improve my game. Sterling carried me about all the way around. It doesn’t chap me all that much.”
Fuller and Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney earned $25,000 for their sixth-place finish.
The Georgia Tech pairing of head football coach Paul Johnson and former basketball star Jon Barry won the scramble event with an 11-under par. Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley and former Volunteer running back and South Carolina native Stanley Morgan finished second at 8-under.
Spurrier and Swinney played the first nine holes of the day in the same foursome. It’s the most time the two rivals get to spend together during the year, Swinney said.
“I definitely see him more here than I do anywhere else,” Swinney said. The rivalry “never dies when you’re Clemson-South Carolina. It’s always there, but it’s good to get away and engage and interact with people in a different setting. That’s what has been fun about this.”
Spurrier said he and Swinney talked only about golf.
“We didn’t even talk football,” he said.
| SCHOOL | TEAM | SCORE | WINNINGS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Tech | (Paul Johnson / Jon Barry) | -11 | $120,000 |
| Tennessee | (Derek Dooley / Stanley Morgan) | -8 | $60,000 |
| Ole Miss | (Houston Nutt / Wesley Walls) | -7 | $40,000 |
| South Carolina | (Steve Spurrier / Sterling Sharpe) | -7 | $40,000 |
| Virginia Tech | (Frank Beamer / Dell Curry) | -7 | $40,000 |
| Clemson | (Dabo Swinney / Steve Fuller) | -6 | $25,000 |
| Wake Forest | (Jim Grobe / Riley Skinner) | -5 | $20,000 |
| Miami | (Al Golden / Gino Terretta) | -4 | $15,000 |
| Alabama | (Nick Saban / Chris Mohr) | -3 | $10,000 |
| Maryland | (Randy Edsall . Stan Gelbaugh) | -3 | $10,000 |
| Miss. State | (Dan Mullen / Fred McCrary) | -3 | $10,000 |
| NC State | (Tom O’Brien / Torry Holt) | +1 | $10,000 |
Targeting rule in effect across college football
Rating SEC non-conference schedules, from hardest to easiest
