Texas Tech golf, fueled by Baard Skogen's finest hour, set for national
Former Texas Tech golf assistant coach Mikkel Bjerch-Andresen sent Baard Skogen a congratulatory text message last week after his fellow Norwegian won the individual title at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional.
"I texted him (back) it probably wouldn't have happened without him," said Skogen, a Texas Tech senior. "I'm just grateful for him and (Tech coach) Greg (Sands). They took the chance on me. I wasn't a great junior player before my final year as a junior golfer.
"Guys like (coach) Matt Thurmond at Arizona State and other places got interested, but I was always here and these guys believed in me. I wanted to prove to them that was a good decision."
Skogen's 8-under score and two-shot victory led Tech to third place and propelled the Red Raiders into the NCAA championships for the fourth year in a row. This year's setting is the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa North Course in Carlsbad, California. Tech is the No. 8 seed in a 30-team field that starts play Friday.
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Skogen's regional title came on the heels of a disappointing Big 12 tournament. The Red Raiders tied for sixth. Skogen shot 78-75 the first two rounds at Whispering Pines, and Sands replaced him in the lineup for the last two rounds.
"Not a lot of guys would have handled that well," Sands said, "so for him to not only go back and re-qualify and do the things he needed to do to make the top five (Tech's lineup), but then parlay that into some good play ... I challenged him hard. I challenged them hard to find their best mental game and things that make them play their best.
"He obviously went back to work and found those things. He's a world-class ball striker. When he gets things lined up and going well, he can compete with anybody."
Tech junior Calum Scott tied for second in Baton Rouge. Skogen shot 6-under 66 in the final round, making five birdies in a seven-hole stretch.
"I looked at the scores through nine and saw Calum was playing really well," Skogen said, "so I thought try to catch him, and some putts started dropping from everywhere on the greens, really. I don't think I missed a putt pretty much in the last nine holes. The hole looked big, and it was just fun."
At La Costa, the teams will play 54 holes before a cut to 15 teams after Sunday's round. Those 15 will play another round on Monday before another cut with the last eight teams seeded for a match-play bracket Tuesday and Wednesday.
The past few years, with Ludvig Aberg leading the team, anything short of making the finals site would have been a letdown. Now Aberg has made a quick splash on the PGA Tour, and the Red Raiders' hierarchy is less clearly defined. Scott, with a 70.8 stroke average, Tyran Snyders (71.4) and Skogen (71.8) have played in all 12 team tournaments, and Matthew Comegys (71.4) has been in the lineup for all but one.
"It's a special crew," Sands said. "We've been through a lot. I think they lived in Ludvig's shadow a little bit and wanted to get out of that. We set that in motion to be our culture, and I'm just really happy for these guys, especially Baard."
Between mid-February and mid-March, Tech won two tournaments and was runner-up in another. Then came a 12th place and a ninth in the last two regular-season events.
"The exciting thing about this team is we have the pieces when we play really well to be one of the best teams in the country," Sands said. "I saw a lot of the stuff I was seeing earlier this spring show up at the regional, and it's what you hope for, having your best stuff at the right time."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech golf, fueled by Baard Skogen's finest hour, set for national
