Clemson takes down No. 3 Florida State, wins program's first-ever ACC Championship
Clemson takes down No. 3 Florida State, wins program's first-ever ACC Championship
Clemson delivered its most thrilling win of the season on Saturday, knocking off No. 3 Florida State, 2-1, to capture the program's first-ever ACC Tournament Championship.
It was a breakthrough moment not only for the Tigers as a team, but also for the trajectory of the young program, which had never defeated the Seminoles in any of their seven previous meetings. This time, on the conference's biggest stage at Harrington Village in Brighton, Massachusetts, Clemson made history.
The 10th-ranked Tigers once again leaned on their resilience, rallying from behind for the third time in as many games during the ACC Tournament. Trailing 1-0 in the seventh inning with one out and a runner on base, Kylee Johnson stepped to the plate and delivered the decisive blow. Down in the count 1-2, Johnson got a pitch from FSU reliever Jazzy Francik and crushed it over the wall in straightaway centerfield. The two-run home run not only gave Clemson the lead, but also completely silenced a Florida State team that had controlled the matchup throughout much of the afternoon.\
Clemson's pitching and defense did the rest. The Tigers shut down the Seminoles the rest of the way, locking up the championship and handing Florida State just its sixth loss of the season. For Clemson, the victory was more than just a trophy—it was a statement. It erased the sting of a loss in the 2022 ACC title game, it broke through the 0-7 all-time barrier against FSU, and it firmly established the Tigers as a legitimate threat heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Clemson now returns home with momentum and hardware, awaiting word on its postseason destination. The Tigers are projected to receive a regional, though that is not guaranteed. They entered Saturday's title game ranked No. 11 in the RPI and will find out their NCAA Tournament path during the selection show, scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.
Contact us @Clemson_Wire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Clemson Tigers news and notes, plus opinions.
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Dustin Johnson returns to Oakmont, site of 2016 U.S. Open triumph, as game rounds into form
Dustin Johnson returns to Oakmont, site of 2016 U.S. Open triumph, as game rounds into form A lot has changed for Dustin Johnson since the last time he was at Oakmont Country Club nine years ago. He captured his second major title, winning the November Masters in 2020. He was one of the first players to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in 2022, where he remains with one win in each of his first three seasons, though he hasn't collected a worldwide win since February 2024. This week, the 40-year-old is back in Western Pennsylvania looking to rekindle the DJ of old's flame at the 2025 U.S. Open. He has missed the cut in five of his past seven majors and sits 27th in the LIV Golf season standings after eight events with three top-10 finishes on the year, including last week at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. But he remains far from his form in 2016, when he entered the final round at Oakmont trailing by four but won by three, claiming his first major championship title a year removed from a disappointing finish at Chambers Bay, when he had an eagle putt from 12 feet to win on the 72nd hole and walked off the green with a par to miss a playoff by one shot. "The course is just as hard as I remember, if not harder. Yeah, I like coming back here. I love the golf course," Johnson said Monday at his pre-tournament news conference. "First time I played it, probably two weeks prior to the 2016 Open, so obviously a lot of good memories from that year. Coming back, I was back here one other time when I got my honorary membership here, for that ceremony, which was really nice. Proud member of Oakmont. I'm probably their favorite member because I never come." Johnson calls Oakmont the toughest course he has ever played, and he couldn't name a second off the top of his head. Even with softer conditions expected this week thanks to upwards of 13 inches of rain in the past 10 weeks, and more expected early on and possibly on the weekend, it could make the golf course a bit easier to hold the fairways and greens, but it could lead to it playing longer, too. That's how conditions were when Johnson won in 2016. "The conditions right now are similar," he said. "Hopefully it will be dry, we won't get any more rain, and it will dry out a little bit by Thursday." Johnson said his game has been trending in the right direction, even if the results don't show it. He's currently in the midst of one of his longest winless streaks (16 months) of his lengthy pro career. "Golf is a strange sport. I don't feel like I've slipped any. My scores haven't reflected, but it is a really fine line," Johnson said. "I remember a few years ago, I missed two cuts in a row. I think I shot 80-80, and then I won the next week. "For me it's always really close to being good, but just getting back there and keeping it consistent which over the last couple months I'm starting to see a lot of patterns and the game feels like it's coming back into good form." Before he won at Oakmont in 2016, Johnson went 15 months between victories. A lot has changed in nine years, but the competitive fire remains inside DJ, and he's hoping some good vibes at Oakmont can be the spark to another special week. "I have confidence in this golf course because I know I played well, but obviously this week puts a lot of pressure on the driver. I feel like I'm driving the ball really good right now," he said. "Even from there, though, it doesn't get much easier. You definitely have to hit it in the fairway if you want a chance to win around here. "I'm looking forward to playing in it this week and hopefully can contend."
