The East Lake Cup, the annual midseason celebration of college golf on both the men’s and women’s sides, always offers a snapshot of where things stand with the torrent of fall tournaments pretty much behind us and the spring sprint to the NCAA Championship in front of us.
The event brings together the four semifinalists from the previous spring’s NCAA Championship, although the Stanford women, potentially one of the greatest teams in the history of women’s college golf, passed on the trip to Atlanta, offering its place to Pac-12 rival UCLA, which was a quarterfinalist last spring at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Arizona State men, playing close to home at Grayhawk last spring, came up just short in the Final Match, falling to a veteran Texas team, 3-2, in its bid for a national championship. A really strong Vanderbilt team, a winner in the Southeastern Conference Championship and at the Palm Beach Regional, also saw its national championship hopes dashed by Texas in the semifinals at Grayhawk.
Vanderbilt, No. 3 in the Golfstat rankings in the aftermath of the East Lake Cup, knocked off No. 2 Arizona State, 3-2, in the final at the 7,434-yard, par-72 East Lake Golf Club layout Oct. 26th with The Golf Channel’s cameras rolling.
A lot can happen between now and May of next year, but you can expect to see these two teams in the mix next spring. It’s amazing how often the telecast of the matches at the NCAA Championship refer back to a previous meeting seven months earlier at East Lake.
On the women’s side, SEC power Auburn belied its No. 24 ranking with a 5-0 whitewashing of SEC rival Texas A&M, in the East Lake Cup final. The Aggies are ranked No. 3.
The Auburn of recent seasons seems to save its best stuff for the biggest moments. The Tigers were somewhat overlooked when they made their run to the semifinals at Grayhawk last spring. Auburn gave eventual champion Stanford all it wanted in falling, 3-2, in the semifinals in the NCAA Championship.
Back on the men’s side, the starting five in the East Lake Cup final for Vanderbilt included four players who teed it up in the Commodores’ semifinal loss to Texas last spring at Grayhawk. So, it should come as no surprise that Vanderbilt has had a strong fall campaign.
Even Vanderbilt’s fifth-place finish in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas earlier in October was pretty impressive as the Commodores bounced back from a slow start to move up the leaderboard against one of the deepest, most talented fields of the fall.
Arizona State lost some big guns from its lineup since last spring, but with the addition of a couple of talented freshmen, Luke Potter of Encinitas, Calif. and Norwegian Michael Mjaaseth, it doesn’t look like the Sun Devils will skip a beat.
The one-time U.S. Amateur Four-Ball tag team of Potter and Preston Summerhays, Arizona State’s supremely talented sophomore from Scottsdale, Ariz. and No. 62 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), accounted for the Sun Devils’ two points in their loss to Vanderbilt in the East Lake Cup final.
Potter, who was one of the best junior players in the country for the last couple of years, pulled out a 1-up victory over Cole Sherwood, a junior from Austin, Texas and No. 13 in the WAGR, while Summerhays claimed a 3 and 1 victory over Gordon Sargent, a sophomore from Birmingham, Ala. who claimed the NCAA’s individual crown in a playoff at Grayhawk as a freshman last spring. Sargent, the medalist in the single round of qualifying for match play on the first day at East Lake with a 4-under 68, is No. 4 in the WAGR.
Reid Davenport, a fifth-year player, who, like his teammate Sherwood, is from Austin, Texas and is No. 40 in the WAGR, claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Mjaaseth. Matthew Riedel, a senior from Houston, rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over Ryggs Johnston, a senior from Libby, Mont. and No. 80 in the WAGR. Riedel, who is No. 75 in the WAGR, was the only player in the lineup in East Lake who was not in the Vanderbilt lineup last spring at Grayhawk.
The deciding point for Vanderbilt was delivered by senior William Moll, like Riedel a Houstonian and No. 86 in the WAGR, as he converted a short birdie putt on the 18th hole to earn a 1-up verdict over Josele Ballester, a sophomore from Spain and No. 50 in the WAGR.
Vanderbilt had reached the final with a 4-1 victory in the semifinals over Big 12 power Texas, ranked 21st. This Texas team bears little resemblance to the powerhouse, led by Cole Hammer and the Coody twins, Pierceson and Parker, that captured the NCAA crown last spring.
But the Longhorns still have Travis Vick, a senior from Houston who is No. 10 in the WAGR. The marquee matchup in the semifinals saw Vick pitted against Sargent with the Vanderbilt sophomore pulling out what was listed as a 3-up victory. The match was not completed because the team outcome was no longer in doubt.
The lone point for Texas came from Christiaan Maas, a freshman from South Africa who claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Davenport.
Riedel defeated Alejandro Gonzalez, a sophomore from Mexico, Moll knocked off Mason Nome, a senior from Houston, and Sherwood beat Keaton Vo, a freshman from Austin, Texas, all by convincing 5 and 4 margins, to account for Vanderbilt’s other three points.
Arizona State, which earned the top seed in match play at East Lake with a 7-under 281 team score in the one round of qualifying faced Pepperdine, No. 15 in the rankings, in the semifinals in a rematch of a semifinal match in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk won by the Sun Devils, 4-1.
Pepperdine made a strong run last spring in defense of the NCAA crown it won in 2021 and the Waves appear poised to make another deep run in next spring’s postseason.
One of Arizona State’s star freshmen, Potter, and his old junior pal, Summerhays, accounted for two of the Sun Devils’ points in a 3-2 victory at East Lake, Potter earning a 4 and 3 decision over Ian Maspat, a sophomore from San Diego, and Summerhays pulling out a 1-up victory over Sam Choi, a graduate student from Anaheim, Calif.
The other Arizona State point was recorded by Ballester, who captured a 3 and 2 win over Luke Gifford, a graduate student from Boca Raton, Fla.
A couple of veterans of Pepperdine’s run to the semifinals at Grayhawk, William Mouw, a senior from Chino, Calif. and No. 15 in the WAGR, and Derek Hitchner, a graduate student from Minneapolis, Minn. and No. 37 in the WAGR, accounted for the points for the Waves.
Hitchner, who made a run to the semifinals in the U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. in August, outlasted Arizona State’s Johnston for a 1-up win while Mouw earned a 2 and 1 victory over the Sun Devils’ other talented freshman, Mjaaseth.
In the third-place match, Pepperdine got wins from Maspat, Gifford, Choi and Mouw in a 4-1 victory over Texas. The lone point for the Longhorns came from Vick, who pulled out a 1-up victory in a marquee matchup with Hitchner.
Potter shared second place with Hitchner in qualifying with a 3-under 69 to lead Arizona State to the top seed in the one round of qualifying.
Texas finished five shots behind the Sun Devils in second place with a solid 2-under 286, Vanderbilt was two shots behind the Longhorns in third, matching par with a 288, and Pepperdine was four more shots behind the Commodores in fourth with a 4-over 292.
Backing up Potter for Arizona State was Ballester, who shared fourth place with Texas’ Vo with a 2-under 70.
Mjaaseth and Summerhays were in the group tied for sixth place, each carding a 1-under 71 for the Sun Devils. Johnson rounded out the Arizona State lineup as the Sun Devils were able to toss his 5-over 77, which left him in 19th place.
On the women’s side, Auburn had three members of the starting lineup it utilized last spring at Grayhawk among its top five in its impressive shutout of Texas A&M, which had earned the top seed in qualifying for match play over an East Lake layout that played to 6,312 yards for the ladies.
The Tigers’ Elina Sinz, a junior from Katy, Texas cruised to a 3 and 2 victory over Jennie Park, a senior from Carrollton, Texas, while the outcome was still in doubt.
Anna Foster, a junior from Ireland, had a comfortable lead over Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, a senior from Spain who had been the individual medalist in qualifying for match play with a solid 2-under 70, when the Tigers clinched the team win. Fernandez Garcia-Poggio is No. 24 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
The third returnee in the Auburn lineup from last spring, senior Megan Schofill, a senior from Monticello, Fla. and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR, was similarly in command in her matched with Adele Cernousek, a sophomore from France, when the Tigers secured the title.
Schofill has very quietly been one of the top amateur players in the country the last few years and has been a fixture in the Auburn lineup. It was Schofill and Foster who claimed match wins in Auburn’s loss to a powerful Stanford team last spring at Grayhawk.
Auburn’s other wins came from a couple of talented newcomers, Casey Weidenfeld, a redshirt freshman from Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Rachel Gourley, a freshman from England.
Weidenfeld, batting leadoff in the Auburn lineup, took out Zoe Slaughter, a junior from Houston, with a 3 and 1 victory, while Gourley rolled to a 6 and 5 win over Hailee Cooper, a graduate student from Montgomery, Texas whose college career started at Texas.
Weidenfeld came up with the decisive point in Auburn’s 3-2 win over reigning Pac-12 champion Oregon, ranked No. 6, in the semifinals at East Lake.
Weidenfeld battled Hsin-Yu (Cynthia) Lu to extra holes before prevailing on the 19th hole to send the Tigers to the East Lake Cup final.
Schofill rolled to a 6 and 5 victory over Brittany Shin, a sophomore from Cape Coral, Fla., and Foster claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Ching-Tzu Chen, a senior from Taiwan, to account for Auburn’s other two points.
A talented Oregon team got wins from Briana Chacon, a senior from Whittier, Calif. and No. 93 in the Women’s WAGR, and Ashleigh Park, a junior from Irvine, Calif. Chacon rolled to a 6 and 4 victory over Gourley while Ashleigh Park earned a 3 and 2 decision over Sinz.
Lu, Chen and Chacon were in the Oregon starting lineup in the Ducks’ 3-2 loss to Stanford in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at Grayhawk.
Texas A&M’s Cooper had one of the shots of the week when she holed out her chip for eagle on the finishing hole at East Lake to give her a dramatic 1-up victory over UCLA’s Emilie Paltrinieri, a senior from Italy, and send the Aggies into the East Lake Cup final with a 3-2 victory over the Bruins.
Texas A&M also got a 4 and 2 victory by Slaughter over Alessia Nobilio, a redshirt sophomore from Italy and No. 98 in the Women’s WAGR, and a 5 and 4 decision by Fernandez Garcia-Poggio over Annabel Wilson, a sophomore from Northern Ireland.
UCLA’s Caroline Canales, a sophomore from Calabasas, Calif., claimed a 2 and 1 decision over Cernousek and Zoe Antoinette Campos knocked off Jennie Park, 3 and 2, to account for the Bruins’ two points.
UCLA, ranked 28th, picked up a 3-2 victory over its Pac-12 rival Oregon in the third-place match.
It was a tight match with Canales edging Shin and Nobilio beating Ashleigh Park, both by 1-up margins. Paltrinieri battled Lu to a draw and Campos halved her match with Chen. Oregon’s lone full point came Chacon, who rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Wilson.
The 2-under 70 by Fernandez Garcia-Poggio that earned her medalist honors in qualifying led Texas A&M to the top seed in match play with a 1-under 287.
Oregon finished two shots behind the Aggies in second place with a 1-over 289, Auburn took third with a 6-over 294 and UCLA was fourth with an 18-over 306.
Fernandez Garcia-Poggio was backed up for Texas A&M by Slaughter and Cernousek, both of whom were in the group of seven players tied for second place, two shots behind Fernandez Garcia-Poggio at even-par 72.
Jennie Park finished in a tie for ninth place to account for the final counter for the Aggies with a 1-over 73 and Cooper rounded out the Texas A&M lineup as she landed in 15th place with a 4-over 76 that Texas A&M was able to toss.
Oregon had three players joining Slaughter and Cernousek in the group tied for second place in the individual standings at even-par, including Lu, Chacon and Ashleigh Park.
Rounding out the group at 72 were UCLA’s Campos and Auburn’s Sinz.
No comments:
Post a Comment