NCAA golf | The Concession Golf Club lives up to championship expectations

EAST MANATEE -- The NCAA made the decision to bring its Division I Golf Championships to The Concession Golf Club before it even made an official visit to the site.

The club had a strong reputation, particularly as a match-play course, which made it an appealing destination as a first-time host in 2015.

After two weeks and 16 rounds of golf, The Concession began restoring itself to normal operating capacity Wednesday as LSU finished off USC in the title match of the men's championships. Despite going in somewhat blind, the NCAA was pleased with its two weeks in East Manatee County.

"We knew enough about the club," said Donnie Wagner, the NCAA's associate director of championships and alliances. "There were members on our committee that had played the golf course before, and it was held in very high regard."

The Concession proved its reputation as a strong collegiate match-play golf course by hosting the 2014 Big Ten Match Play Championship, although Wagner said that didn't play much into the NCAA's decision to bring the national championships to the club.

He talked to Big Ten coaches about their experience and received positive feedback, but he first extracted info from the Golf Coaches Association of America, which brought the Callaway Collegiate Match Play Championship to Manatee County in 2012.

"They had a match-play event here prior to the Big Ten having theirs, and I talked to their president to get some feedback," Wagner said, "so we knew quite a bit about the club and knew that they would do a great job at hosting."

For stroke play, the course quickly earned a reputation for its difficulty. On the women's side, only three players shot below par, and the first-place team was 40 over par for the four rounds.

For the men, the first-place team was 3 over par, and 10 individual golfers finished under par. SMU's Bryson Dechambeau, the individual champion, shot 8-under, including a round of 5-under. Washington's Cheng-Tsung Pan, an IMG Academy alumnus who had played the course during high school, finished second at 7 under par and felt the difficulty was ideal for a national championship. Good golfers shot near par, and players needed an exceptional performance to score significantly under par.

"It's totally like a perfect place for the championship venue," Pan said. "I think the course is hard but doable. It's soft because of the rain, but it's playing longer. I mean, I think every major championship should be like this. It's hard, super hard, but it's still doable, and I think 8 under is a great score to win a championship like this."

The rain was a slight issue -- moreso for the women, who had play cut short several times during their tournament -- although it simply created a different style of play for the men.

For the most part, Florida's afternoon storms remained relatively small, and the men were delayed only twice during their championship.

They had to play through a little bit of bad weather, but in the end that only put the only damper on the national championships in East Manatee.

"We had a break from Mother Nature," Wagner said. "We knew we would get those late-afternoon storms from time to time. We needed a few dry days. We got lucky with those."

This story was originally published June 4, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "NCAA golf | The Concession Golf Club lives up to championship expectations ."