Sooners begin title chase at NCAA Championships
Oklahoma will be paired with Texas Tech and Virginia as it begins the NCAA Championships on Thursday in Carlsbad, California.
The Sooners are coming off a regional title where Ben Lorenz took the individual title with a career-low 64 in the final round. Drew Goodman, Ryder Cowan, Luke Kluver and Jace Summy round out the Sooners’ five. PJ Maybank will serve as a substitute if needed.
The Sooners tee off in 11-minute intervals starting with Summy at 2:55 p.m. Only the final three days of the tournament will be televised on the Golf Channel.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the NCAA Championship:
1. Tournament format — There will be 156 golfers competing at the NCAA Championships — six are individuals and the rest are competing on the 10 qualifying teams.
There are two parts to the NCAA Championships. The individual stroke play event will last 72 holes and help determine the eight teams that advance to match play to compete for the team championship.
All teams and individual qualifiers will participate in the first 54 holes (three rounds) of stroke play. After the third round, the top 15 teams and six individuals not on advancing teams will move on to the final day.
At the end of 72 holes, the golfer with the lowest cumulative score wins the individual title.
The match play portion of the tournament begins Tuesday. In match play teams face off head-to-head in a bracket-style format consisting of a quarterfinal, semifinal and championship final.
Each golfer can earn one point with a win over their opponent and the team that earns at least three points will move on to keep their season alive.
2. A new home for college golf? — The site of the NCAA Championships has moved to 98 different venues since the first time it was contested in 1897.
Until 2021 the site would change every season, typically at a golf program’s home course. Then, it was announced that Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona would host for three consecutive years.
This season, they’ve moved to the newly-renovated Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner made changes specifically with the NCAA Championships in mind.
Texas men’s golf coach John Fields is on the board of directors of the College World Golf Championships, a group trying to make Carlsbad a permanent home for the tournament, similar to the Men’s College World Series in Omaha and the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
The par-72, 7,538-yard North Course is currently set to host through 2026.
3. Who are the favorites? — Auburn was given the top overall seed and has only been beaten by four teams over 15 tournaments this season.
Fellow Big 12 foes Texas (the No. 6 seed) and Oklahoma State (the No. 18 seed) are also in attendance.
Vanderbilt Haskins Award finalist Gordon Sargent will be among the challengers for the individual title alongside Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornson, Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprecht and Arizona State’s Preston Sumerhays.
