Vanderbilt the top seed in match play and the Commodores' Sargent wins individual NCAA crown in a playoff at Grayhawk

    It was indicative of the kind of balance you’ve seen throughout Division I men’s college golf throughout the wraparound 2021-2022 season.

   Three teams, Southeastern Conference champion Vanderbilt, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, Big 12 champion Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in college golf, and Atlantic Coast Conference representative North Carolina, ranked fifth, finished in a three-way tie for first place in the team competition after four long days in the desert at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   None of the top three finishers when the dust settled on a Memorial Day Monday played particularly well in the final round by their standards.

   Vanderbilt capped a steady weekend with a 9-over-par 289 over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Grayhawk layout. Oklahoma carried a four-shot lead on the field into the final round before closing with a 15-over 295. North Carolina moved up the leaderboard from fourth place with a final round of 5-over 285. They all landed on 14-over 1,134 total.

   The tiebreaker was lowest cumulative score among the players whose scores were dropped over the weekend – even if you think your score won’t count, it still might -- and Vanderbilt was awarded the top seed in the eight-team match-play bracket and will take on No. 8 Texas Tech, the fourth Big 12 team among the final eight, when the quarterfinals get under way Tuesday morning.

   Oklahoma ended up as the second seed and gets No. 4 Arizona State, a Pac-12 entry playing a few miles from its campus. North Carolina will face defending national champion and sixth-ranked Pepperdine, the West Coast Conference champion.

   Probably the juiciest quarterfinal matchup will pit ancient Big 12 rivals Texas, ranked seventh, and No. 2 Oklahoma State in a rematch of a 2019 semifinal in which the Longhorns stunned the Cowboys, who were trying to repeat as the national champion.

   The battle for the individual NCAA champion was just as tight as Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, a freshman from Birmingham, Ala. and No. 14 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), survived a four-man playoff with a birdie on the first hole, the par-4 18^th at Grayhawk, to become the first freshman to win the individual title since Southern California’s Jamie Lovemark in 2007.

   Oklahoma’s Chris Gotterup, a redshirt senior from Little Silver, N.J. and No. 27 in the WAGR, three-putted the 18^th hole in regulation that cost him a spot in the playoff and also cost the Sooners the top seed in the match-play bracket.

   Sargent had taken a one-shot over Gotterup into the final round, but struggled a little over a tough Grayhawk layout, closing with a 4-over 74 that left him with an even-par 280 total.

   Texas senior Parker Coody, one of the twin grandsons of 1971 Masters champion Charlie Coody from Plano, Texas on the Longhorns’ roster, North Carolina’s Ryan Burnett, a senior from Lafayette, Calif., and Oklahoma State’s Eugenio Chacarra, a senior from Spain and No. 4 in the WAGR, joined Sargent at even-par.

   Coody and Barnett each matched par in the final round while Chacarra finished up with a 2-over 72.

   Parker Coody led Texas to the low team round of the day, a 3-under 277, as the Longhorns finished in fourth place in the team standings, just three shots out of the logjam at the top of the leaderboard at 17-over 1,137.

   Parker Coody, twin brother Pierceson, No. 3 in the WAGR and Cole Hammer, a senior from Houston and No. 13 in the WAGR, were freshmen on that 2019 team that knocked off Oklahoma State in the semifinals before falling to Stanford in the Final Match at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.

   Oklahoma State struggled in Monday’s final round, closing with an 18-over 298 to finish four shots behind Texas in fifth place with a 21-over 1,141 total. A very, very good team is not going to the semifinals when the outcome of the Texas-Oklahoma State quarterfinal goes into the books.

   Pepperdine struggled a little in the final round with a 13-over 293 that left the Waves in sixth place, five shots behind Oklahoma State with a 26-over 1,146 total. Pepperdine was very good in match play at Grayhawk a year ago and the Waves are confident they’ll be tough in match play at Grayhawk again this spring.

   Arizona State finished up with a solid 9-over 289 and was two shots Pepperdine in seventh place with a 28-over 1,148 total.

   Texas Tech had the day’s second-best team score, a 4-over 284, to climb over Arkansas and grab the final ticket into the match-play bracket with a 33-over 1,153 total.

   With the No. 8 Red Raiders getting in, it meant that the top eight teams in the Golfstat rankings comprised the match-play bracket. It hasn’t happened before and probably won’t again, but these were probably the eight best teams all along in the final weeks leading up to the NCAA Championship. And, guess what, they grinded better than all the other teams as well.

   Backing up Sargent for Vanderbilt were Cole Sherwood, a sophomore from Austin, Texas and No. 45 in the WAGR, and William Moll, a junior from Houston, both of whom finished among the group tied for 11^th place at 5-over 285. Sherwood closed with a 3-over 73 while Moll posted a critical 1-over 71.

   Harrison Ott, a fifth-year player from Brookfield, Wis., closed with a solid 2-over 72 to finish in the group tied for 40^th place with a 291 total.

   Rounding out the Vanderbilt lineup was senior Reid Davenport, like Sherwood an Austin guy and No. 41 in the WAGR, as he shared low-Commodore honors for the day with Moll with a 1-over 71 that left him in the group tied for 47^th place with a 293 total.

   Backing up Gotterup for Oklahoma was Patrick Welch, a senior from Aliso Viejo, Calif. and No. 18 in the WAGR who struggled to a 77 in Monday’s final round and finished in the group tied for 15^th place with a 6-over 286. Welch was one of the few players over the weekend who solved Grayhawk for at least one round as he unleashed a seven-birdie, no-bogey 63 in Sunday’s third round.

   Drew Goodman, a freshman home boy from Norman, Okla., was so solid all weekend as he closed with a 3-over 73 that left him in the group tied for 20^th place with a 7-over 287 total. Logan McAllister, a steady senior from Oklahoma City, Okla. and No. 11 in the WAGR, closed with a 74 to finish in the group tied for 25^th place with an 8-over 288 total.

   Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl went to Stephen Campbell Jr., a redshirt freshman from Richmond, Texas, off the bench for the final two rounds and Campbell contributed a pair of counters, a 2-over 72 in Sunday’s third round and a 4-over 74 in Monday’s final round.

   David Ford, a freshman from Peachtree Corners, Ga. and No. 38 in the WAGR, gave North Carolina a second finisher among the top five as he was part of a foursome of players who finished in a tie for fifth place, just a shot behind his teammate Burnett and the three other players involved in the four-man playoff for the title at 1-over 281. Ford showed the poise of a veteran all weekend, closing with a 1-over 71.

   Austin Greaser, a junior from Vandalia, Ohio and No. 20 in the WAGR, and Ryan Gerard, a senior from Raleigh, N.C. and No. 91 in the WAGR, backed up the Tar Heels’ top two as they finished in the group tied for 25^th place at 8-over 288.

   Greaser closed with one of the best individual rounds of the day, a 1-under 69. Think the U.S. Amateur runnerup at Oakmont Country Club last summer might be a tough out in match play? Yeah, me too. Gerard finished up with a 75.

   Rounding out the North Carolina lineup was Peter Fountain, a sophomore from Raleigh, N.C. who closed with a 75 to finish in the group tied for 71^st place with a 303 total.

   Joining Oklahoma’s Gotterup and North Carolina’s Ford in the quartet tied for fifth place, a shot out of the playoff for the individual title were Arizona State’s Cameron Sisk, a senior from San Diego and No. 40 in the WAGR, and Pepperdine’s William Mouw, a junior from Chino, Calif. and No. 20 in the WAGR.

   Both matched par in the final round with a 70, in Mouw’s case his third straight even-par round at Grayhawk.

   It had to be one off the most contentious battles for the individual title in the history of the NCAA Championship with four players involved in a playoff and another four players a shot behind them. They all had a shot.

   Arkansas’ Mateo Fernandez De Oliveira, a junior from Argentina and No. 50 in the WAGR, closed with a 2-over 72 to finish alone in ninth place with a 2-over 282 total. Guy finishes two shots out of the playoff for the title and ends up ninth place.

   Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett, a senior from Madisonville, Texas and No. 5 in the WAGR, apparently was playing a different golf course than the rest of the field was Monday as he closed with a sizzling 6-under 64 to end up with a top-10 finish, his 3-over 283 total leaving him alone in 10^th place.

   It was a disappointing day for No. 17 Auburn, an SEC entry, as the Tigers closed with an 11-over 291 to finish in a tie for 10^th place with SEC rival Florida at 40-over 1,160, seven shots out of the last spot in the match-play bracket.

   But Auburn got a bust-out performance from sophomore Carson Bacha, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York in 2019. Bacha matched par in the final round with a 70 as he finished in the group tied for 20^th place with a 7-over 287 total.

   Five of the seven teams that had survived the cut to 15 teams, but failed to make the match-play bracket came out of the SEC, so it remains the toughest conference top to bottom in the country.

   One of those teams was No. 23 Mississippi, which closed with a 300 to finish alone in 14^th place with a 57-over 1,177 total.

   Evan Brown, one of the Ches-Mont League’s top performers during an outstanding scholastic career at Kennett, was one of the best players in the history of the program at Loyola of Maryland. Brown took the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to make up for the spring of 2020 lost to the coronavirus pandemic at Ole Miss.

   Brown closed with a 3-over 73 to finish among the group tied for 57^th place with a 295 total.

   It’s easy to forget how much the pandemic impacted the lives of the men and women who have been competing at Grayhawk the last couple of weeks. The younger kids were still in high school when they had their lives turned upside down in the spring of 2020.

   But they have persevered and just making it to Grayhawk is proof that they were able to overcome some big hurdles and compete at the highest level of college golf.