Aberg wins regional, Texas Tech advances
NORMAN, Okla. — Ludvig Aberg is a champion again, and the Texas Tech men's golf team is moving on after a tense day on the course.
Aberg won the NCAA Norman Regional, shooting a 5-under-par 67 in Wednesday's final round at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club.
Aberg will be joined by his Texas Tech teammates in the NCAA championship tournament May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Six teams were in contention down the stretch for five national berths, and a soggy course yielded a slew of birdies with each of the six posting final-round scores of double digits under par.
"It was worse than nerve-wracking," said Tech coach Greg Sands, whose team finished fourth, avoiding a playoff for the last berth by two strokes. "I think [a player from] Duke chipped one in from 50 yards, and everybody was making putts on the last [hole]. They had a number they had to get to, and it just didn't feel safe 'til it was."
Aberg's individual title was the fourth this school year for the senior from Sweden and his second straight in the postseason, helping his chances of being a repeat winner of the Ben Hogan Award. College golf's version of the Heisman Trophy will be presented Monday at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. Only two-time major champion Jon Rahm, when he played for Arizona State, has won the award twice.
Even though he made three bogeys after going bogey-free in the first two days of the regional, Aberg started and finished the final round ahead by one stroke. He finished 14-under, followed by Oklahoma teammates Drew Goodman (67) and Ben Lorenz (66) at 13-under and 10-under, respectively.
That's on the heels of his record-setting eight-stroke victory in the Big 12 tournament three weeks ago at Prairie Dunes.
"He's pretty much dragging the team with him right now," Sands said. "I'm starting to see signs of the other guys playing the way we know they can. I think we were second in the field in birdies, so I think we're hitting our stride at the right moment. But when you've got a guy that continues to do what he's doing, that certainly helps the cause."
Tech sophomore Calum Scott made an eagle and five birdies in his round of 4-under 68 that made him 3-under for the tournament. Scott and freshman Matthew Comegys (71) both finished in the top 30 in a field of 78 players. Tech's last counting score came from junior Tyran Snyders, who overcame a triple-bogey seven on No. 4 and a bogey on the next hole to shoot 1-under 71.
That made Jack Wall's 73 the Red Raiders' discard score for the day.
Aberg, Scott and Snyders all birdied the 18th, a par-5.
Alabama won the Norman Regional at 28-under, and close behind the Crimson Tide were a pack of teams vying for the other four tickets to the desert around Memorial Day weekend. Oklahoma finished second at 25-under, and Colorado, Tech and Duke qualified with team totals of 23-under, 22-under and 21-under, respectively.
North Florida just missed at 20-under.
Rain in the days leading up to the tournament resulted in the field using lift, clean and place rules in the fairway in the first two rounds and left soft, receptive greens. That made for a frantic finish.
"It was a golf course where you could get away with maybe a little bit too much, because it was a little bit wet," Sands said. "The greens were definitely soft, so you could really, really hit a lot of greens, so it ended up being a little bit of a putting contest instead of more of a championship. But that happens sometimes, and you've got to go make more birdies than the next team."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Ludvig Aberg wins regional, Texas Tech golf team NCAA final event
