Virginia, re-energized and tidy, sets 36-hole pace at NCAA Championship

CARLSBAD, Calif. – After Virginia finished sixth at its home event, the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial, just ahead of its B-team, Cavaliers head coach Bowen Sargent could sense that his players were gassed.

“They all looked tired and sluggish,” Sargent said, “so I told them just put your clubs up and go home.”

For three days, Virginia’s practice facility was off limits to Sargent’s team. When they returned to work, the Cavaliers still had exactly a week to prepare for the ACC Championship.

Though Virginia finished fifth at conference and missed match play by three shots, it had hit the reset button. A runner-up finish at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional proved it, as has the Cavaliers’ hot start through 36 holes of the NCAA Championship.

With a 1-under 287 in Saturday’s second round at Omni La Costa, Virginia sits atop the 30-team leaderboard at 1 over, three shots better than second-place Illinois, six clear of third-place Vanderbilt and 16 ahead of the current match-play cut line.

“We’ve driven the ball well and, knock on wood, haven’t made a lot of big scores,” said Sargent, whose squad has combined to only card one score of double bogey or worse – Ben James’ double at No. 13 on Friday after hitting his tee shot out of bounds.

The Cavaliers have played the "Crucible," the new nickname for Nos. 12-17, in a combined 8 over par through two rounds. And the par-4 14^th hole, the toughest so far this week, has been easy for Virginia, which made five pars on it on Friday before going 1 over on Saturday.

“That felt like winning the lottery,” Sargent said.

Senior George Duangmanee birdied the hole to spark a three-birdie run that highlighted his second straight 1-under 71. He’s third on the leaderboard while James and his brother, freshman Josh Duangmanee, are a shot behind him. Sargent says the brothers couldn’t be more different. George is more serious, methodical while Josh is more care-free. Georgia hits a draw while Josh cuts it.

One of the only commonalities between the Duangmanee pair is length.

“They both bomb it,” Sargent said.

And the fact that both have been in and out of Virginia’s lineup this season; they boasted just one top-10 between the two of them entering this week.

Sargent also sees some parallels between this year’s team and last year’s group, which advanced to the match-play quarterfinals at Grayhawk and took eventual NCAA champion Florida down to the wire before losing. It was mid-spring a year ago where Virginia suffered a setback, at the Linger Longer Invitational, where the Cavaliers tied for eighth, 53 shots behind winner Alabama. Virginia rallied after that with four straight top-3s to spark their run at nationals.

“You never know, what you think is bad might be good for you,” Sargent said, “and it’s happened to us both seasons.”

He wouldn’t mind a repeat of last year’s NCAA stroke play – just with a different match-play result.