Photo Gallery 
June 1, 2013
MILTON, Ga. - Cal's historic season came to an end Saturday when Illinois defeated the No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Golden Bears, 3-2, in an NCAA Championship semifinal match at the Capital City Club's par-70, 7,319-yard Crabapple Course. Thomas Pieters needed 20 holes to defeat Max Homa in a fierce battle between the 2012 and 2013 NCAA individual medalists in the deciding match with all four other matches decided and the teams all square at 2-2.
A large gallery watched the drama on the course's second hole that served as the 20th hole of the match as Pieters hit his approach shot to within 10 feet while Homa was about 30 feet away for a tricky downhill putt. Homa putted first and his long birdie attempt slid by the hole by about eight feet. Pieters had a chance to win the match by making his putt but missed, leaving Homa an opportunity to sink his putt and extend the match.
But Homa missed and Cal's season was over.
"It's hard to believe it's over," head coach Steve Desimone said. "To have a season like this, I just don't know the next time a season like this is going to happen. Maybe it will happen next year; maybe it won't happen again for the next 50 years. I'll tell you, there is nothing that happened today that's going to diminish that. My humble opinion is that this is the best college golf team that's ever played. I don't know what else you can say. I'm so proud of these guys. It'll be a very rough afternoon, and it'll be a rough couple of days, but what they've accomplished is going to live for a long time. Win or lose here, the season we've had is unique in college golf. We're going to be able to celebrate that for a long time."
Homa, who was also the Pac-12 individual medalist in 2013, was asked during a post-match media interview if he would trade in his individual titles for an NCAA team championship.
"Yeah, I'd throw them all in a grinder and anyone could take `em," he said. "I just wanted that team one."
Asked earlier what stung most, Homa tearfully replied: "Letting my whole family down. Those guys put so much into this year. It sucks not being the one to move us on to tomorrow."
"He's given it his all," Desimone said of Cal's lone senior in the NCAA lineup. "He laid it all out there today."
Pieters had a chance to win the match on the par-four 18th green but his four-foot birdie try lipped out to send the match to extra holes.
On the 19th hole, Homa nearly ended the match when he almost chipped in from about 20 feet off the fringe of the green. His shot was on line but stopped about an inch short of the hole.
Homa either led or the match was all square until the deciding hole. He took his first lead with a birdie on the par-four fifth and extended it to three when Pieters bogeyed both the par-four eighth and ninth holes. But a Homa bogey on the par-four 10th followed by Pieters' birdies on the par-four 11th and par-five 12th brought the match back to all-square in a hurry. Homa responded with a birdie on the par-three 13th but bogeyed the par-four 14th and the match would stay all-square until the deciding hole.
Cal's two winners on Saturday were Michael Weaver with a 1 up victory over Thomas Detry and Brandon Hagy with a 4 & 3 win over Alex Burge.
Joining Pieters as winners for Illinois were Charlie Danielson with a 3 & 2 triumph over Joël Stalter and Brian Campbell with a 2 & 1 victory against Michael Kim.
Weaver won his match by taking his only lead of the day when Detry's 10-foot putt lipped out on the 18th hole. The players halved each of the first seven holes before Weaver's bogey on the eighth put Detry up by one hole. The match immediately went back to all-square when Detry double bogeyed nine but a Weaver bogey on 10 but Detry right back on top. Weaver then made one of the most dramatic shots of the day when his chip from about 15 feet on 12 rolled into the flagstick and dropped for an eagle to square the match again, where it would stay even until the final hole.
Hagy never trailed in his match, taking his first lead with a birdie on the par-four second and staying in control the remainder of the way. He took control by winning three straight holes to build a four-hole lead when his birdie on the par-four seventh was sandwiched by Burge bogeys on the par-three sixth and par-four eighth. Burge cut the lead back to three when Hagy bogeyed nine but Burge's bogey on 10 put the lead right back at four. Burge birdied 12 to get it back to three but could get no closer. Hagy closed out the match with his birdie on the par-three 15th.
Stalter bogeyed the par-four first to drop the opening hole and would lead in his entire match. Danielson extended his advantage to three holes with back-to-back birdies on the par-five fourth and par-four fifth, but Stalter fought right back with his own birdie on six to shrink Danielson's advantage back down to two holes. Stalter would get within one hole when Danielson double bogeyed eight, but it would be as close as he would be the remainder of the way. The match gradually swung in Danielson's control when he won three of the next six holes on a Stalter bogey on nine, his own birdie on 12 and another Stalter bogey on 14. Stalter kept the match alive with a birdie on 15 but both players posted a par on the par-four 16th and Stalter was out of holes.
Kim birdied the first hole and led for much of the front nine in his match. Campbell's birdie on four brought the match back to all-square before his bogey on seven gave a one-hole lead back to Kim. But that lead would only last for another hole before Kim bogeyed nine to put the match back at all-square at the turn. After both players made par at 10, Danielson registered a birdie on 11 to take his first lead and one he would never relinquish before eventually clinching the match with a birdie on 17. The players each won one of the prior two holes with Danielson making a birdie at 15 to extend his lead to two holes before giving the hole right back with a bogey on 16.
"We had a lot of great days this year; it just so happens that today wasn't one of them," Desimone said. "Of course it's disappointing. These guys had worked so hard for this but that's the game and that's why we play it. There's going to be a winner and there's going to be a loser. Today we just came up on the short end. Hats off to Illinois. They came up to make some big shots and some huge putts. When they needed to save holes, and win holes they did."
"Today was the most disappointing day we experienced as a team," Weaver said. "To again come so close to playing for a national championship but falling short is disappointing, but unfortunately that is the nature of match play. On any given day you can get beat. We knew that but had our sights set on playing for the title tomorrow."
Cal fell in the NCAA Championship semifinals for the second year in a row with the Bears still looking to advance to the match-play finals for the first time in school history. Cal has a lone NCAA title to its credit in 2004 when the crown was decided with 72 holes of stroke play. Cal has made 12 appearances at the NCAA Championship, including a current stretch of a school-record four in a row from 2010-13.
Cal won 11 of its 14 tournaments in 2012-13 to set a modern-era NCAA single-season win record previously established by Oklahoma State in 1985-86. Over the last two seasons, Cal has captured 17 of its 28 events and finished in the top five in each of them. Cal was the nation's No. 1 ranked team heading into the NCAA Championship and had been in the spot since shortly after winning its first two tournaments of the campaign.
"Regardless of the result today, it is important to keep in mind just how incredible this year was for Cal golf," Weaver said. "It seemed like we were breaking records left and right. Every tournament we were seen as the team to beat, and having that bulls-eye on our back pushed all five of us to be better players throughout the season. Four of the five of us will be back next year for another shot at this, but we will all miss not having Max back next year. He was our leader and motivator this year, always reminding us what was out there for us to achieve. We did everything short of winning an NCAA championship, so we have no reason to be at all disappointed with the year as a whole. It just hurts to not win it all."
Fifth-seeded Illinois will face second-seeded Alabama in the finals of the NCAA Championship on Sunday with the first tee time moved up to 8:00 a.m. ET/5:00 a.m. PT due to impending weather conditions. Alabama reached the finals with a 3-0-2 victory over host and second-seed Georgia Tech in Saturday's other semifinal.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP (HOSTED BY GEORGIA TECH)
MILTON, GA - CAPITAL CITY CLUB, CRABAPPLE COURSE (PAR-70, 7,319 YARDS)
NCAA MATCH PLAY QUARTERFINAL
Illinois d. Cal, 3-2
Michael Weaver (Cal) d. Thomas Detry (Illinois), 1 up
Charlie Danielson (Illinois) d. Joël Stalter (Cal), 3 & 2
Thomas Pieters (Illinois) d. Max Homa (Cal), 20 holes
Brian Campbell (Illinois) d. Michael Kim (Cal), 2 & 1
Brandon Hagy (Cal) d. Alex Burge (Illinois), 4 & 3
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH - SUNDAY, JUNE 2
8:00 a.m. ET/5:00 a.m. PT - No. 3 Alabama vs. No. 5 Illinois
