It’s a testament to how strong UTC’s golf program has become in the last four years that J.T. Clendenin wasn’t with the Mocs last week when they earned the first trip to the NCAA Championships in school history.

Clendenin traveled with the Mocs in all eight tournaments in the spring of 2008, including the NCAA regionals at Council Fire, and produced three top-eight finishes and 10 par or better rounds. Heading into the fall season, his career stroke average was 73.52. Last summer he shot a 68 to qualify for a Hooters Tour event.

Fine accomplishments all, but these days the real accomplishment if you play for Mark Guhne’s UTC team is to survive qualifying rounds. Suffice it to say the competition has become stout. Only the strong survive.

This season, as strong as he’d been his entire college career, including a season at Birmingham Southern, it wasn’t strong enough.

“I basically got hammered all year,” Clendenin said, “by the other eight guys on my team.”

Undaunted by that beat down, as he put it, Clendenin stayed positive and went to work on his swing. And while the Mocs were in Stillwater, Okla. last week battling the likes of Oklahoma State, LSU, Arkansas and TCU in the NCAA South Central Regional, Clendenin stayed behind to compete in the Signal Mountain Invitational.

His time was well spent. Clendenin’s final-round 68 on Sunday allowed him to pass second-round leader Michael Morrison and claim his first victory in about two years. Clendenin shot a 3-under-par 33 on the front nine and birdied No. 9, 10 and 11 to get to 10 under par for the tournament, four shots ahead of Morrison.

That seemingly comfortable lead evaporated after a pair of bogeys at 14 and 15 and Morrison birdies at 13 and 15, but Clendenin kept his cool, parred the par-3 17^th from off the green and regained a one-shot lead when Morrison three-putted the same hole. Clendenin finished at 205 for 54 holes, one stroke ahead of Morrison, who closed with a 71.

“Of course I’d have rather been with the team [in the NCAA regionals],” Clendenin said. “But I take it very seriously every time I play. And it feels good to win a tournament for the first time in a while. Michael turned it on on the back nine and I had to fight through some nervousness on a couple of putts. But it was a lot of fun.”

Morrison echoed that sentiment despite getting unlucky at No. 17. The wind kicked up behind the players on the par-3 17^th tee, and Morrison chose a 9-iron. The ball landed on top of the ridge in the middle of the green, and had it stayed put, he would have had a decent birdie putt to the back hole location. But the ball spun to the front of the green, forcing Morrison to putt from another area code, 90 feet away.

“That was a little unlucky, but it was fun [on the back nine],” Morrison said. “When I walked off the 15h green [after making a birdie to tie Clendenin at 8-under], my heart was really pumping. And that’s all you can ask for—to give yourself a chance.”

Clendenin has been working hard to give himself a chance to regain his spot in the Mocs’ lineup.

“We’ve got some good players at home that could be starting for a lot of teams around the country,” Guhne said. “J.T. is a great player who went through a major swing change this year. By the time he started playing well, we were pretty far along in our season.”

By that time, it was too late to dent the Mocs’ rotation. But Clendenin has put in the work for next season, and beyond. He recently began taking lessons from Black Creek head professional Todd McKittrick, and Clendenin credits him with tightening up his fundamentals.

“I grew up as a gambling type of player,” Clendenin said. “I’d hit it a long way and shoot for every pin. I didn’t worry about making a double bogey because I’d make seven birdies. But I developed some sloppy habits.”

McKittrick has worked on Clendenin’s setup. And Clendenin has also made an effort to develop a controlled fade off the tee rather than an occasionally uncooperative draw. He put the changes to good use at Signal Mountain.

“I’m always trying to improve,” Clendenin said. “It was hard this year [not traveling with the Mocs], but I feel like those guys made me a better player. Winning will do a lot for my confidence.”