Lee comes up with the clincher as Oklahoma State defeats Virginia to claim its 12th national championship

 

   It’s funny with programs like Oklahoma State. It’s like winning is in their blood.

   The Cowboys entered this week’s NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif. with 11 national titles to their credit. Make it 12.

   With Eric Lee, a sophomore from Fullerton, Calif. and No. 53 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), coming up big for the second day in a row, Big 12 champion Oklahoma State claimed a 4-1 victory over Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match Wednesday.

   It was the fifth straight tournament victory for the Cowboys and their seventh for the wraparound 2024-2025 season.

   The day was much like Oklahoma State’s season. The Cowboys started slowly, falling behind the talented Cavaliers in every match.

   But they came on strong and when Lee bumped a chip from some gnarly grass to the right of the par-5 18^th green to six feet, Virginia’s Josh Duangmanee, a sophomore from Fairfax, Va. and No. 81 in the WAGR, conceded a 2-up victory to Lee and Oklahoma State had the point that clinched its 12^th national championship.

   “They are just tough and have confidence,” Oklahoma State head coach Alan Bratton, himself a Cowboy standout in the mid-1990s, told The Associated Press. “They have been resilient all year. We played a poor first round at the (Urbana) regional and they didn’t bat an eye.

   “We didn’t get off to the best start here in the first round of stroke play, but they just kept inching up the board and ultimately won the three matches like you need to.”

   Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson, a fiery freshman from Sweden, ran his match-play record at La Costa to 3-0 with a 3 and 1 victory over Virginia’s Maxi Puregger, a freshman from Spain, to put the first point on the board for Oklahoma State.

   Gaven Lane, a sophomore from Argyle, Texas, found himself 2-down after seven holes to Virginia’s Paul Chang, a senior from China and No. 71 in the WAGR.

   But Lane evened the match by taking the eighth and ninth holes and then rattled off four straight wins from the 12^th through the 15^th holes to close out a 4 and 3 victory and put a second point on the board for Oklahoma State.

   A day earlier, Eric Lee, who transferred to Oklahoma State after a year at California, had buried a five-foot putt for par to beat Mississippi’s Cohen Trolio, a junior from West Point, Miss., on the 19^th hole of their match and send the Cowboys to Wednesday’s Final Match.

   Eric Lee was even with Virginia’s Duangmanee through 16 holes and faced a 25-foot putt for birdie at the par-4 17^th hole. Bang! Eric Lee’s putt looked good off the club face and his birdie gave him a 1-up lead heading to the par-5 finishing hole.

   Duangmanee blocked his tee shot to the edge of the pond right of the fairway, but was able to gouge it out to the fairway. After striping his drive, Eric Lee blocked a 3-wood into the junk, hole high right of the green.

   Duangmanee found the putting surface, but he needed to win the hole to extend the match.

   Eric Lee drew a decent lie in the penalty area. Rather than try to launch it high on the green, though, Eric Lee, in a total feel shot, bumped it out of the grass and the ball trundled on the green.

   Duangmanee was going to do no better than halve the hole and that wasn’t good enough and he conceded the match.

   Virginia’s lone point came from Ben James, a junior from Milford, Conn. and No. 3 in the WAGR, as he claimed a 3 and 2 victory in a heavyweight showdown with Oklahoma State’s Preston Stout, a sophomore from Richardson, Texas and No. 20 in the WAGR.

   The final point was awarded to Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang, a sophomore from Plano, Texas and No. 15 in the WAGR who held a 1-up lead through 15 holes over Bryan Lee, a senior from Fairfax, Va. and No. 28 in the WAGR.

   Bryan Lee was locked in as the anchor man for Virginia. He had come through with a win that gave the Cavaliers a victory over North Carolina and the program’s first ACC title.

   If it came down to that match, Bowen Sargent, the Tony Markel Family head coach at Virginia, had complete faith that Bryan Lee would have pulled it out.

   But Eric Lee made sure it didn’t get that far and Oklahoma State, for the first time in seven seasons and the 12^th time in the long and storied history of this championship, was the national champion.