Trailing in four of five matches on the back nine, No. 16 Texas A&M mounted an impressive comeback during the finale of the SEC Men’s Golf Championship on Monday before ultimately falling to No. 3 Vanderbilt, 3-2, at Sea Island Golf Club.

The championship swung on the result of a sudden-death playoff between A&M junior Andrew Paysse and Vandy’s John Augenstein, who stood all square after 18 holes following a late rally by Paysse. The issue was not decided until a fifth playoff hole that eventually went the way of Augenstein, who recovered from an errant tee shot to record par and lift the Commodores to their first SEC Championship.

“I hope our guys learned [at the SEC Championship] that they’re a great team,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “I feel like we thought we were a good team, but now I hope they realize they’re a great team that can play with anybody. When we play our best golf we can beat anybody in the country.”

Redshirt freshman Brandon Smith fell to Patrick Martin (6&5) to give the Commodores their first tally before Texas A&M received a much-needed lift as junior Cameron Champ bested Will Gordon (2&1) to knot the contest at one match apiece. Vandy also got a score as Theo Humphrey topped Aggie rookie Dan Erickson (3&2).

Prior to the deciding drama playing out between Paysse and Augenstein, it was sophomore Chandler Phillips who provided the theatrics as, trailing by two, the Huntsville, Texas, native carded birdies on two of his final four holes to complete a comeback win over Matthias Schwab (Up 1).

“We got off to a pretty rough start, but the guys hung in there,” Higgins added. “Cam was in control of his match and did a good job, but Brandon was struggling. So it was 1-1 and in all of those other matches we were down two. Paysse showed amazing fight to win No. 14 and 15 to even his match, then battled all the way to the 23rd hole. Chandler just did what he does. He was down two going to No. 15, then birdies two of his last four holes to win his match up.”

The SEC Championship was decided by match play for the first time ever this season with the field trimmed to eight schools after 54 holes of stroke play. The Aggies, who finished second in the tournament’s stroke play portion to Vanderbilt, defeated Missouri (5-0) and Alabama (3-2) in match play on Sunday to reach the final.

“It was an amazing effort by Cam, Chandler and Andrew, all three of them almost went undefeated in match play,” Higgins said. “It’s hard to lose when you’ve got guys doing that.”

Up next for the Aggie men’s golf team will be the 2017 NCAA Championship with the teams competing at the various regional sites announced on May 5 at 11 a.m. (CT) live on the Golf Channel.