This week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., there are more than just the Players Championship games going on.

The Hayt Collegiate Tournament has been held at Sawgrass Country Club, which is across the street from the famous Stadium Course, for the past 15 years. It is a 54-hole stroke-play game that draws many of the best NCAA Division I teams and ends on Monday of Players Week. A warm-up act before the main show.

There were 12 shots between the University of Texas men’s team, which is placed fourth in the country, and Alabama going into the final round.

The Longhorns wouldn’t give up, though. Four of their five players shot even par or better on Monday, which helped Texas win after falling behind. Luke Potter, a 20-year-old junior, led the Longhorns to a seven-shot victory and won the individual title with a score of 69 (three under).

Potter didn’t really come out of nowhere, even though this was his first NCAA win. As a student at Carlsbad, California’s La Costa Canyon High School in 2019, Potter was named California’s student Athlete of the Year.

He was the first high school golfer since Tiger Woods to receive this honor. He won the Southern California Golf Association Amateur the next year, when he was 16 years old, making him the youngest winner ever.

He made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur and the quarterfinals of the Western Amateur in 2021.

Potter got on the golf team at Arizona State because of his great family history. He played there for two years before moving to Texas last fall. I just wasn’t getting the most out of my game,” Potter told the Daily Texan when asked why he made the switch. “It was mostly my fault just because when you get to college, everyone is Mr. Golf in their respective states, and I just kind of leveled off.”

But on Monday, Potter rose above the rest of the field. He made three birdies and an eagle to win the individual title by three strokes and be the only player to end the week ten or more strokes below par.

The team enjoyed their win that night at Sawgrass CC’s open-air beach club, which has a view of the Atlantic. One of the greats from the University of Texas, Jordan Spieth, who is in the field at the Players Championship this week, was there to congratulate them.

The team had more fun on Tuesday when they walked around the Stadium Course and watched the best players in the world get ready for one of the biggest events of the season. The team walked with and talked with another great Longhorn, Scottie Scheffler.

They also met some other famous former players, like Jhonattan Vegas and Beau Hossler. Another former Longhorn, Doug Ghim, was seen grinding on the back of the range by the team. There were strong hook ’em vibes.

Texas golf is 98 years old,” John Fields, who has been the men’s coach at Texas for almost 30 years, told me Wednesday night over the phone. It has won 106 times on the PGA Tour.”

Six of its 10 major titles have been won by women. This is a proud school, and it breaks my heart that this happened. But as a coach, I know that 18- and 22-year-olds miss things sometimes. Yes, that did happen yesterday.

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN OR HEARD WHAT HAPPENED ALREADY

In this day and age of social media and cams in every pocket, almost everything is open to the public.

Potter and one of his friends split off from the rest of the group on Tuesday afternoon and sat behind the 18th tee box to watch Rory McIlroy hit his drive.

A year ago at the Players, McIlroy hit his ninth hole of the day, a tee shot into the lake on the left side of the green.

Because of the water ball, McIlroy, Spieth, and Viktor Hovland got into a long and heated argument about where McIlroy’s ball had gone into the penalty area.

Late that afternoon, McIlroy hit another tee shot into the water at the par-4 7th hole, which made Spieth and Hovland question whether McIlroy had taken the right amount of a drop.

And during McIlroy’s practice round on Tuesday, Potter filmed his swing from behind and just to the left of the 18th tee box. Yes, splash again. Another tee ball that has been washed.

We could have finished the story here, but we didn’t. That would have made it less interesting. When it was clear that McIlroy’s drive was going to fail, Potter made fun of him, and the world’s second-ranked player could hear him.

The taunt brought up the 2011 Masters, where McIlroy, who was leading after 54 holes, famously triple-bogeyed the 10th hole in the final round, scoring an 80 that has stuck with him ever since.

There are times when fans say mean things about professional players. Most of the time, they don’t say anything (you would never see Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, or Tom Watson argue with a fan).

But not all the time (Greg Norman had his times). And in this case, McIlroy chose to play. “Can I see your phone?” he asked as he walked up to Potter and put his arm across the rope line. That means “I’m taking your phone.”

I took the device from Potter’s hand, turned around, and walked away. Potter looks shocked in a video of the moment that was taken by a fan and shared by several outlets, including Barstool Sports.

The video now has more than 1.7 million views on X. Soon after what happened, he was led off the land. Potter did get his phone back.

Potter should have known better than to make fun of a professional player. Without a doubt. He’s still young, but he’s played the game long enough to know its rules and traditions. In fact, there are written rules about how to behave when booing at the Players Championship.

They are in the official Fan Code of Conduct, which says:

People who break these rules of behavior while watching will be kicked out and lose their ticket rights:

–Making comments or actions that are rude, vulgar, or otherwise inappropriate;

–harassment of players, workers, officials, or fans through words or actions;

-Getting in the way of play or distracting a person;

-behavior that is disruptive, dangerous, or against the law;

-Not doing what a championship official, worker, or security guard tells you to do

Did Potter feel bad about what he did?

Without a doubt again. Potter was not available for an interview with the University of Texas Athletic Department.

However, Potter’s coach, John Fields, told me of his player, “He’s got a hole in his heart.” He had no idea that what he was saying would have this effect.

Fields went on, “I mean, it’s an embarrassing moment for our University of Texas program.” Our program is based on respect for the game, so this is especially important to me.

I would also like to add that I coach 18–22-year-olds all the time, and they don’t always make the right call. That’s my job as a coach, and when they do, it’s a learning moment.

Fields said Potter has already sent letters of apology to McIlroy, Mr. Brendan von Doehren, who is in charge of PGA Tour University, and Mr. Scott Schroeder, who is the men’s golf coach at the University of North Florida, which is hosting The Hayt event. The university might punish Potter in some way, but Fields wouldn’t say what those might be.

“How we handle [the incident] is extremely important, and suffice to say Luke’s paying the consequences of that,” he said. “He’s going to be a better man from now on.” That’s what I believe.

It’s way too early to say if that path leads to a spot on the PGA Tour. Even though Potter is a great college player, there are a lot of other stars like him. He is placed 60th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, but he is much lower on the PGA Tour University Ranking (he’s not in the most recent rank, which goes up to 171), which is based on an algorithm that finds the best Division I players.

But Potter also seems to have found something special at a college that has had a lot of Tour stars. He still has a lot of time to grow up and change. According to him, “It’s just a winning environment here in Austin,” said the Daily Texan.

“It’s kind of like an iron sharpens iron situation on this team because we’re all trying to grind it out and get better and win tournaments.”

It was a learning experience for Potter this week, both inside and outside the ropes. He is not likely to forget it soon.

Fields said, “It’s sad that it’s out in the public” that McIlroy had talked to Potter. But I’m okay with that too, because social media has made the world smaller, and you need to know that.” Every day, guys like Rory, Tiger, Jordan, and Scottie have to deal with this. It’s a wake-up call for all of us.

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