With the NCAA Division I men’s regionals teeing off at six sites around the country Monday, there’s no way I’m going to get around to wrapping up the conference championships. I think I have time to sneak in one and it’s going to be the Big Ten Championship, which wrapped up April 28th at Scioto Country Club, the Donald Ross classic in Columbus, Ohio. I wanted to note the end of the Penn State careers of Patrick Sheehan and Jimmy Meyers and check in on Meyers’ Pittsburgh Central Catholic teammate Neal Shipley of The Ohio State University. I was at the PIAA Class AAA Championship in 2018 at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County when Sheehan and Meyers played in the final group with eventual champion Palmer Jackson – Jackson’s college career isn’t quite over as Notre Dame will be the sixth seed in the Austin Regional at the University of Texas. A day later, Meyers and Shipley led Pittsburgh Central Catholic to the PIAA Class AAA team crown. There was a ton of talent at Heritage Hills that week.
Not sure what the bigger news was when the Big Ten Championship wrapped up, that Northwestern captured the title or that Illinois did not win the championship.
The Wildcats, behind repeat individual champion Daniel Svard, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 77 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), were the last team standing in the last weekend in April when gusty winds and a great golf course in Scioto really challenged the best players in the Big Ten.
Northwestern matched par in the opening round with a 280 over the 7,240-yard, par-70 Scioto layout and then things got really tough. The Wildcats added a 294 in the second round before closing with a 9-over 289 and were never really threatened, their 23-over 863 total giving them a 15-shot victory over Illinois, which saw its remarkable streak of eight straight Big Ten team titles snapped.
It was Northwestern’s first Big Ten team title since 2006.
Svard sandwiched a 5-over 75 in the second round with a pair of 2-under 68s for a 1-over 211 total that gave him a one-shot victory over Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan, a junior from Dacula, Ga. and No. 30 in the WAGR.
Buchanan was the picture of consistency at Scioto, carding back-to-back 1-over 71s in the first two rounds before matching par in the final round with a 70 that left him a shot behind Savard with a 2-over 212 total.
After opening with a 10-over 290, the Fightin’ Illini added a 296 in the second round before closing with a 292, their 38-over 878 total still good enough to earn them runnerup honors.
Illinois, which was one of the last eight teams standing for match play in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. a year ago, was awarded a three seed in the Stanford Regional at the Stanford Golf Course when the fields for the NCAA regionals were announced last week.
Northwestern earned an automatic bid to the regionals by taking the Big Ten crown and is seeded fifth in the Chapel Hill Regional at Finley Golf Club.
Purdue finished eight shots behind Illinois in third place at Scioto with a 46-over 886 total as the Boilermakers opened with a solid 8-over 288, struggled to a 301 in the second round and closed with a 297.
Purdue will play host in the West Lafayette Regional at the Brick Boilermaker Golf Complex’s Kampen Cosler Course and is seeded fifth.
Michigan State entered the final round at Scioto just three shots behind Northwestern after the Spartans added a 291 in the second round to their opening round of 6-over 286. Michigan State struggled to a 312 in the final round to end up in fourth place, three shots behind Purdue with an 889 total.
Michigan State will join Northwestern in the field at the Chapel Hill Regional, where the Spartans are the 11 seed.
Ohio State, playing just down the road from its Columbus campus at Scioto, finished a shot behind Michigan State in fifth place with a 50-over 890 total. After opening with a 291, the Buckeyes added a 297 in the second round before finishing up with a 302.
Ohio State will also represent the Big Ten in an NCAA regional, the Buckeyes being awarded a six seed in the Baton Rouge Regional at the University Club.
Penn State finished in a tie for 10th place with Michigan in the 14-team field to conclude Mark Leon’s first year as the head coach in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions opened with a 294, but struggled after that, adding a 306 in the second round before closing with a 307 for a 67-over 907 total.
Northwestern finished with four players in the top 10 in the individual standings.
James Imai, a graduate student from Brookline, Mass., backed up Savard as he finished in a tie for third place with Michigan State’s Ashton McCulloch, a junior from Canada, each landing on 5-over 215, three shots behind Illinois’ Buchanan.
Imai matched his teammate Savard’s opening round of 2-under 68 before adding a 4-over 74 in the second round and closing with a 73.
Ethan Tseng, a sophomore from Portland, Ore., finished in a tie for eighth place with a 9-over 219 total. After opening with a solid 1-over 71, Tseng registered back-to-back 74s in the final two rounds.
The Wildcats’ Cameron Adam, a junior from Scotland, finished alone in 10th place with a 10-over 220 total as he added a solid 1-over 71 in the second round to his opening-round 73 before backing off a little in the final round with a 76.
Rounding out the Northwestern lineup was Niall Shiels-Donegan, a freshman from Mill Valley, Calif. who finished among the group tied for 19th place with a 225 total. Shiels-Donegan added a 5-over 75 in the second round to his opening-round 76 before finishing up with a 74.
McCulloch took a one-shot lead over teammate August Meekhof, a senior from Coopersville, Mich., in the individual race into the final round after McCulloch added a 1-under 69 in the second round to his opening round of 1-over 71. McCulloch closed with a 5-over 75 to join Northwestern’s Imai in the tie for third place at 5-over.
Meekhof opened with a 3-under 67, the best individual round of the weekend, and added a 4-over 74 in the second round before closing with a 76 to finish in a tie for fifth place at 7-over 217 with Ohio State graduate student Neal Shipley, a member of that 2018 Pittsburgh Central Catholic PIAA Class AAA championship team, and Purdue’s Herman Sekne, a senior from Norway.
Shipley sandwiched a solid 1-under 69 in the second round with a pair of 4-over 74s.
In the past month, Shipley has played four rounds of golf at Augusta National Golf Club – the last one while paired with five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods – on his way to low-amateur honors, three rounds at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course, another classic designed by Alister Mackenzie, the main architect at Augusta National, and renowned golf course architect Perry Maxwell, in Ohio State’s home event, the Robert Kepler Invitational, and then three more at the Ross gem at Scioto.
Can’t imagine anyone in the field for the Baton Rouge Regional will be better prepared to play a tough golf course than Shipley will be.
After opening with a 3-over 73, Sekne added back-to-back 72s in the final two rounds.
Joining Northwestern’s Tseng in the tie for eighth place at 9-over was Michigan’s Hunter Thomson, a junior from Canada who closed with a solid 1-under 69. Thomson opened with a 6-over 76 and added a 74 in the second round.
Thomson will head for Purdue to compete as an individual in the West Lafayette Regional. Also competing as an individual in the West Lafayette Regional will be Wisconsin’s Cameron Huss, a senior from Kenosha, Wis. who finished in a tie for 26th place with a 226 total in the Big Ten Championship.
Leading the way for Penn State were Jake Griffin, a junior from Kensington, Md., and graduate student Jimmy Meyers, another member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s state championship team in 2018, both of whom landed among the group tied for 19th place at 225.
Griffin opened with a solid 3-over 73, added a 75 in the second round and closed with a 77. Meyers had the same splits, adding a 5-over 75 in the second round to his opening-round 73 before finishing up with a 77.
Graduate student Patrick Sheehan, the District One Class AAA champion as a senior at Central Bucks East in 2018, finished among the group tied for 33rd place with a 228 total at Scioto. Sheehan was the low Lion in the opening round with a 2-over 72 and added 77 in the second round before closing with a 79.
Ever since the Lions finally got back on the golf course in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak in the spring of 2021, Sheehan has been a fixture in the Penn State lineup.
In the individual race at that PIAA Championship in 2018 at Heritage Hills, Meyers was the runnerup to Franklin Regional’s Palmer Jackson, who is concluding an outstanding college career at Notre Dame, and Sheehan finished in a tie for third place in Class AAA.
Junior Morgan Lofland, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during a standout scholastic career at Conestoga. finished among a trio of players tied for 57th place at Scioto with a 234 total. Lofland closed with a 6-over 76 after posting back-to-back 79s in the first two rounds.
Rounding out the Penn State lineup was sophomore Billy Pabst Jr., the PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at North Pocono in 2021, as he finished in 67th place with a 240 total. After opening with a 6-over 76, Pabst struggled to an 87 in the second round’s difficult conditions before closing with a 77.
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