'Ready for the moment': Wells Padgett's putt secures SEC Championship

'Ready for the moment': Wells Padgett's putt secures SEC Championship'Ready for the moment': Wells Padgett's putt secures SEC Championship

April 29, 2018

By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com

AUBURN, Ala. - Nationwide television. Competing against his school's biggest rival. Knowing his team's fate rested solely on his performance. None of it fazed Wells Padgett in the slightest.

"I've grown up playing a lot of golf and I've experienced a lot of pressure," said Padgett, a freshman from Wichita, Kansas. "Just being able to thrive under it. You know what your tendencies are under pressure. Honestly, I didn't feel that much this week. I just think I was so ready for the moment, and I was able to prevail."

Padgett prevailed by sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on hole No. 18 Sunday to win his match against Alabama's Jonathan Hardee in St. Simons Island, Georgia, securing Auburn's first Southeastern Conference Championship since 2002.

"Straight downhill, breaking a lot right to left," Padgett said 12 hours after teeing off, surrounded by teammates and toilet paper hanging from the trees at Toomer's Corner. "I'm kind of just trying to ease it up down there, because he's got 8 feet left for par and I could still win the hole.

"But I'm like, `You know what, just make it and end the match right now.' I hit the putt and I'm like, `Wow, that looks really good.' Start kind of walking it in about 5 feet before it goes in. Kind of looking at it, and once it falls I just go berserk. Go to the team and all of us are just having the best time of our lives. It was a great experience."

Displaying his trademark confidence -- a trait that prompted Auburn golf coach Nick Clinard to put Padgett in the anchor role -- the freshman, in effect, called his shot.

"He looked at me and said, `I'm going to finish it right here,'" said Clinard, like his team wearing hats that read "2018 SEC Champs"

"I don't really know what transpired after that. One of the guys from the SEC Network said I jumped pretty high. I think I went out and about tackled him."

Confidence, for Wells Padgett, has never been an issue.

"Golf, you need to be overconfident," Padgett said. "It's a sport that, you can get really down on yourself really fast. I like to have confidence and a good attitude."

"He's got a high self-belief," Clinard said. "Coach [Corey] Maggard and I trust him. He's a really good putter. We knew he could go out and get a point for us if we need it."

In a loaded field -- six SEC teams in the top 10 -- Auburn emerged victorious.

"Really proud of them," Clinard said. "A lot of grit. A lot of grind. It's the toughest league in the country with 10 teams in the top 25 in the nation. The guys played well. They just kept fighting and fighting at the end. They just refused to lose."

That the opponent was Auburn's in-state rival only sweetened the victory, Padgett said.

"I couldn't have done that against a better opponent," Padgett said. "It was great just to beat Alabama. That's the one team we'd love to take out all the time."

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer