NCAA Men’s Golf Championship: Four players under par for Illinois, Florida strong in the heat and more from Saturday’s second round

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The greens are starting to have a brown tint to them at Grayhawk Golf Club.

Well into the second week of the Raptor Course hosting the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Championships, the course has proved tough for college golf’s best. And it’s starting to really firm up and show its shine as the second round was contested Saturday.

Firm greens, fast fairways and penal rough make for a stern test, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a low score out there.

Four members of Illinois’ men’s golf team shot under par Saturday morning, and there’s another golfer who, even with a bogey on the par-4 18th, moved into the individual mix.

Golfweek/Sagarin rankings: Men’s team | Men’s individual
NCAA Leaderboard: Team | Individual | Photos

Here’s a look at what happened during the second round of the men’s NCAA Championship:

Team effort from the Illini

It was a phenomenal morning for Illinois.

The Illini carded a 7-under 273, the second-lowest round recorded by a men’s team at Grayhawk Golf Club the past three years. In 2021, Pepperdine shot 9-under 271 during the final round.

The Waves went on to win the title. Illinois is hoping to do the same.

“If you look at our season, our head-to-head, our wins, it has been impressive,” Illinois coach Mike Small said. “It has been consistent. today was more of a resemblance of our year. Yesterday was not.

“That happens, but good teams come back from that. Now we have to continue to play one day at a time and stay in the present.”

Illinois is at 2-under 558 for the tournament. After Saturday’s morning wave, it is the only team thus far to shoot under par in a round.

And it was a team effort. Four Illini shot under par, with Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Piercen Hunt and Jackson Buchanan each signing for 2-under 68. Tommy Kuhl fired a 1-under 69.

And Illinois moved up eight spots, guaranteeing itself a Sunday morning tee time ahead of the 15-team cut.

“We just regrouped last night, circled the wagons and we need to play our game,” Small said.

Florida dominates afternoon wave

There aren’t any wild alligators in Arizona, but the Florida Gators aren’t afraid of the afternoon heat.

Florida had a tremendous second round, shooting 2-under 278 thanks to a pair of 2-under scores from Fred Biondi and Ricky Castillo. John DuBois added an even-par performance, and Yuxin Lin was 2 over, the highest of the counting scores.

Outside of Illinois’ 7 under from the morning wave, Florida had the only other under-par round of the week, and it came in the more difficult wave. Now it sits at 1 over and three shots back of Illinois after 36 holes.

“I’m really impressed,” Florida coach J.C. Deacon said. “There’s something about this team, it seems like the harder the challenge in front of them, the better they seem to play.”

The Gators won the SEC Championship, knocking off Vanderbilt in the match play final. Then at regionals, they were outside the cutline until a stellar final round that saw Florida beat the field by five shots to earn its ticket to Scottsdale.

Now, the Gators have their first morning tee time in the third round, something that’s a huge advantage.

“That’s something we’ve never had,” Deacon said. “We’re playing good, so we have a chance to put up a round.”

Georgia Tech's Ross Steelman maintains individual lead

Ross Steelman is playing boring golf. That’s also how he likes his coffee.

“Just coffee and cold water. No cream, no sugar,” Steelman said.

Well, the boring strategy is working. After opening with a 6-under 64, Steelman followed it up with a 1-under 69 on Saturday afternoon in a round that included three birdies and two bogeys, and he remains the individual leader after 36 holes.

“Obviously playing in the afternoon is a lot harder than the morning out here,” Steelman said. “Being able to throw something on the board is pretty big for the individual part and has given the team a good block to build on.”

One of Steelman’s birdies came on the difficult par-4 18th, his ninth hole of the round. He hit driver over the left fairway bunker and had a pitching wedge left into the green. He hit it to 18 feet and curled a putt in the left edge.

He sits at 7-under 133 for the individual race, three shots in front of Dumont de Chassart and Rodrigues. Georgia Tech is T-3 at 6 over heading to Sunday.

Steelman is prepared for the quick turnaround in the morning, but he’s going to stick to his game plan.

“A lot of fairways, hit it to 20 feet, roll a couple in and go from there,” he said.

Daniel Rodrigues makes his move

Standing in the fairway bunker on the left side of the 18th fairway, Daniel Rodrigues didn’t face an easy shot into the green.

The green slopes hard left to right. There are bunkers on the left and water on the right. Long is thick rough.

Rodrigues fired his shot and it landed on the front of the green before rolling into the fringe. Considering the challenge before him, it was a stellar shot.

However, his chip landed softly and didn’t roll out toward the flag, leaving him a longer par putt than he likely envisioned when taking his swing. His par putt broke and barely missed the cut. A bogey 5 on his closing hole.

It’s a sour taste in the mouth, but it doesn’t take away from his spectacular 4-under 66, the lowest individual round of the morning wave. Rodrigues, who won the Blessings Collegiate in October, is 4 under for the tournament and tied with Dumont de Chassart for second after the morning wave.

Rodrigues went out in 4-under 31, carding birdies on Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 8. Then he added another at the par-3 13th.

If it wasn’t for the lone bogey, he would’ve had the second-best round of the week title to himself. However, he has positioned himself heading into Sunday’s third round to make a run at the individual title.

A rough morning for Texas Tech

While Grayhawk is a challenging course on any day, it’s normally the morning wave that can post the best scores, even if a team is a couple strokes over par.

However, Texas Tech went backward. 20 spots backward as it stood after the morning wave.

The Red Raiders shot 15-over 295 in the second round, the second-worst round of those teams who teed off early. They carded only seven birdies but also had three doubles and a triple.

Ludvig Aberg, the standout senior who won the Ben Hogan Award on Monday, was 2 under after his opening nine holes, but he went backward quickly. He bogeyed the par-4 first hole, his 10th, after failing to get up-and-down from right of the green. Then he tripled the par-4 third hole. He signed for 3-over 73 and sits 2-over 142 for the tournament.

Only Calum Scott at 2-over 72 had a better Saturday than Aberg.

Texas Tech will likely gain a couple spots in the afternoon, but it sits T-24 after the morning wave. Teams who aren’t in the top 15 have to play in the afternoon come Sunday, and that makes it even more challenging to make the 15-team cut after the third round.

In the women’s tournament, only two teams played Sunday afternoon and made it into Monday’s final round of stroke play. It’s likely Texas Tech will have to try to do that itself.

Scary situation

Oregon junior Gregory Solhaug was forced to withdraw Saturday after he stepped on a tee that went through his shoe and injured his foot.

Here’s more on the situation.

Story originally appeared on GolfWeek