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at Stitch Golf Sandhills Flyers Fall Intercollegiate
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at Stitch Golf Sandhills Flyers Intercollegiate
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at Cutter Creek Intercollegiate hosted by ECU
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at Cutter Creek Intercollegiate hosted by ECU
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at Irish Creek Collegiate Hosted By Appalachian State University
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at Irish Creek Collegiate Hosted By Appalachian State University
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Posted: Jun 06, 2025

Sandhills Brings Home Fifth Straight Golf National Title

Sandhills Brings Home Fifth Straight Golf National Title

The Sandhills men's golf team's trek to upstate New York provided a fifth straight NJCAA national championship, and the program's sixth title Friday at Chautauqua Golf Club.

The Flyers won in convincing fashion by a 50-stroke margin over Georgia Military in second place.

Now with enough championship rings to fill up one hand and put the newest one on the other, Sandhills coach Gus Ulrich said the championship winning feeling never loses its luster,

 
 

"They just continue to amaze me, the talent that these boys have," Ulrich said. "We just keep preparing better and better every year. Coming up here so many times, I feel like I know this place like the back of my hand.

"The talent pool that I'm getting these days is just really strong."

Sandhills topped its previous championship record with 1,136 strokes in this year's championship, topping 1,140 for lowest four-round total.

Sandhills' Vegas Melen was the individual champion, finishing with a four-round total of 10 under.

"When I first moved here, I couldn't imagine how good everything was going to be," Melen said. "We had our ups and downs during the regular season, but I feel like we came here and we knew what we had behind us, the history of this tournament and Sandhills."

Melen is a freshman from Helsingborg, Sweden, and has seen his game transform since he started playing the game seriously five years ago. He felt at ease on the fairways in New York this week.

"I feel like this course fits my eye," Melen said. "The grass here reminds me of back home. We play some courses back in Pinehurst that are similar to this one, and after a few days we knew what we could do on this course."

Ulrich had ties to Sweden, playing there professionally, but saw the talent that Melen could bring in the videos and scores he sent to coaching staffs across the country.

 
 

"He works as hard as anyone here on the team and takes it very seriously. He is definitely focused, and wants to take it to another level," Ulrich said. "He's definitely an ace in the hole for us."

Individually, Sandhills finished with the top three on the leaderboard, with freshman Wyatt Beavers taking second behind Melen at 7 under. Sophomore Landon Cabingas finished in third at 2 under. The three were the only golfers to finish under par after the four rounds. Freshman William Mitchell finished in a tie for fifth at 3 over for the tournament to round out the counting scores for the Flyers.

"I feel really good about our team because we're young," Ulrich said. "To do this with a young team makes me happy."

Sandhills played its last tournament in April, and two months later the Flyers showed no signs of rust.

"It's a six-week break before we play again, so it's really challenging, but we've worked hard and we tried to stay competitive," Ulrich said. "We tried to practice as much as we could, and the boys did a lot of it on their own. I just encouraged them to find some tournaments to play in and be competitive."

In the third round, Sandhills widened its lead by combining for a 12 under score as a team. The 276 stroke total set a new NJCAA Championship single-round record, set last year by the Flyers in the national championship with a score of 280.

"I feel like this whole team, we know what we are capable of. Yesterday was just a day where everything for everyone felt good and we got it going," Melen said. "We saw each other on the tee boxes, and we got each other hyped up."

Cabingas posted a 5-under 67, tying him for the second-lowest round ever recorded in NJCAA Championship history.

"You can't do this alone to win the team national championship. At the end of the day you have to take four scores," Cabingas said. "We were really focused, and we were really determined to expand our lead and keep pushing it. We never got comfortable. We searched for more every single day out here."

Ulrich said that to have success year after year comes with local support from courses and PGA Professionals in the area who allow the team to practice without a home course, as well as the donors supporting the team.

Jonathan Bym- The Pilot