Clemson’s 15th-ranked golf team beat No. 1 Texas by 17 shots.

They defeated defending ACC champion Georgia Tech by 9, Georgia by 17, Oklahoma State by 19 and North Carolina by 63.

That’s what can happen when Larry Penley’s club gets everybody in the game, which is what the Tigers did this week during their 54-hole spring opener at Rio Mar Country Club’s River Course in the Puerto Rico Classic.

En route to a second-place team finish behind eighth-ranked Alabama, all five Tigers finished in the top 25 individually – a first for the program since 2007, when Clemson went on to finish fifth in the nation.

Sophomore Thomas Bradshaw led the way with a sixth-place finish and a four-under total – all accomplished on Tuesday when he shot a team-best 68. Right behind, tied for seventh place at three-under, was freshman teammate Billy Kennerly.

Junior Corbin Mills, the reigning U.S. Public Links champion who will play in The Masters and the Heritage later this spring on the PGA Tour, tied for 14th at one-under, while senior McCuen Elmore and junior Crawford Reeves tied for 23rd at one-over.

Bradshaw led the Tigers in two of their three rounds, while Reeves – who was making his 2011-12 debut after missing the fall season with a back injury – had Clemson’s best score in the other.

Clemson tossed out a two-over score by Reeves on the opening day, a three-over round by Bradshaw in the second round, and a one-over score – posted by both Mills and Reeves – in the final round.

The scores of Elmore and Kennerly counted all three days.

Alabama won the tournament with a 30-under par score of 834 – 18 shots ahead of the Tigers, who finished at 12-under. Clemson pushed past Purdue on the final day and beat the Boilermakers by four shots. Georgia Tech was next at three-under, with NC State fifth at one-under.

No other teams broke par.

Clemson, which finished with consistent team scores of 283-286-283, beat Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech (all three-over) by 15 strokes. Georgia was another two shots back, with a two-shot margin over Oklahoma State.

Ohio State was 11th at 23-over, followed by UNC-Greensboro at 42-over, North Carolina and Michigan at 51-over, and East Tennessee State at 60-over.

Bradshaw’s 68 on Tuesday included six birdies and just one bogey. It was the second best finish of his career and was topped only by his third place at the Furman Intercollegiate last year.

Kennerly had a two-under par 70 on Tuesday and recorded the first top-10 finish of his career. He now has a streak of five straight rounds of 72 or better dating to the fall season and has eight rounds at par or better this year.

Clemson’s 12-under par team score was the best of the year for the Tigers who also had three consecutive under-par team rounds in a tournament for the first time since the Augusta State Invitational of 2010.

The Puerto Rico Classic was the first of five regular-season spring tournaments for the Tigers, leading up to the ACC Championship tournament at Uwharrie Point, NC April 20-22.

Clemson will play in the USCA Cleveland Classic at Aiken, SC, March 3-6; the Furman Invitational in Greenville, March 16-18; the Augusta State Invitational at Augusta, GA, March 31-April 1; and he Woodlands Invitational at Houston, TX, April 9-10.