Once every fall semester, all 20 universities offering accredited Professional Golf Management programs have the opportunity to send five of their best players down to the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Fla. for the largest national competition in the PGM ranks.

The 10th annual PGA Jones Cup, named after former Mississippi State University director Dr. S. Roland Jones, will forever belong to N.C . State.

Carding a two-day total of 609, the Wolfpack completely bypassed its first ever top-10 finish in program history and arrived back to Raleigh with a six-stroke victory. Senior Bryce Aronson shared top medalist honors after firing rounds of 76 and 71, which aided in the Pack’s Wednesday comeback.

“It’s pretty cool, we are really excited to bring home the trophy and put it up in the PGM office,” Aronson said. “All of us are pretty happy about that.”

Trailing by four shots entering the final round, State’s charge on the Wanamaker Course erased seven straight appearances without a win or top-10 showing at the prestigious event. The program finished last year’s event in 14th place.

“For the next couple of years, other teams are going to see North Carolina State on one of those plaques on the trophy,” Aronson said. “It’s cool because it’s not just guys from North Carolina representing us, it’s guys from all over the country. We’ve stepped our game up as a program and as players. They want to be a part of this, so it’s pretty cool.”

One of those out-of-state products, sophomore and Lisle, Ill. native Ben Nelson, led the tournament through one round after battling windy conditions. En route to an opening round 73, Nelson said he and the Pack faced particularly challenging elements.

“That was probably one of the toughest 73s I have ever shot,” Nelson said. “The greens were nice, but they were really hard and you couldn’t stick anything on them. Basically you could never put marks in the greens because they were so hard.”

Nelson also mentioned how a little Tuesday night inspiration became a galvanizing moment for the five-man squad, which also consisted of Wes Conover (82-73), Rupe Taylor (81-76) and Caleb Ridings (83-77).

“Last night we were all talking about it after we finished the first round and Bryce [ Aronson ] stepped up and said, ‘We are going to win tomorrow,'” Nelson said. “I think that just kind of carried over and gave everyone some confidence.

“I know we really haven’t had much success in [the Jones Cup], so it is nice to step up.”

State’s PGA Golf Management program has been in existence since 2002 and has participated in the national tournament since 2004. Based out of the College of Natural Resources and Dept. of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, PGM focuses on developing aspiring golf professionals who want to grow the game of golf through teaching, merchandising or a number of other mediums.

Program Director Dr. Robb Wade has seen one of the smallest majors available at NCSU turn into a successful, student-driven program. One of the reasons State has the opportunity to send talented teams down to Florida is not simply the increase of out-of-state students entering the program, but as a result of internal efforts.

“The PGM Club now is doing a great job of putting on tournaments and having more competition within our program,” Wade said. “And even when we used to go down to Port St. Lucie in the past, we didn’t have enough money in our budget to pay for the five guys on the team. They had to pay their own way down there. The PGM Club has stepped up to defray some of those travel costs.”

For Wade, the Jones Cup tournament symbolizes much more than a national competition – it represents the PGA of America, and its prominent mission.

“I think it shows that the PGA is and always will place an emphasis on the importance of playing golf,” Wade said. “There may have been a time in the past where we got away from that and the professional was supposed to be the guy taking inventory and selling merchandise and running tournaments.

“The Jones Cup very much illustrates that it’s important for golf professionals to be able to play golf.”