Beau Hossler tried to raise his arms in triumph after his
par putt fell Tuesday to give Texas, No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, a 4-1 victory over No. 3 Southern California and
a berth in the NCAA men’s Division I Championship match-play final, but he
couldn’t.
The junior from Mission Viejo, Calif., a member of the 2015
U.S. Walker Cup team, injured his shoulder so badly he couldn’t swing the club
on the final hole of his match with USC’s Andrew Levitt, a senior from Ladera
Ranch, Calif., over the 7,014-yard, par-70 Eugene Country Club layout in
Eugene, Ore.
Hossler managed to get his second shot into a greenside
bunker with a swing that left him writhing in pain and the match behind him was allowed to play through while Hossler
figured out if he could finish the hole. He putted out of the bunker rather
than risk a full bunker shot and the ball skittered into the far fringe from
where he holed the par putt that sent Texas to the final.
The Longhorns also got wins from Scottie Scheffler, a
sophomore from Dallas, Doug Ghim, a sophomore from Arlington Heights, Ill., and
Taylor Funk, a redshirt sophomore from Ponte Vedra, Fla.
The Hossler injury overshadowed, somewhat, the 3-2 victory
for host Oregon, ranked 20th, over No. 4 Illinois in the other
semifinal. Sulman Raza, a redshirt junior from Eugene, Ore. rammed home a
five-foot par putt to finish off a 1-up victory over Illinois’ Charlie
Danielson, a senior from Osceola, Wis., to clinch the win for the Ducks.
The Ducks also got victories from Edwin Yi, a freshman from
Beaumont, Calif. and Zach Foushee, a senior from West Linn, Ore.
Oregon is on a roll heading into the final and the injury to
Hossler doesn’t make things any easier for Texas.
Earlier in the day, the Longhorns got victories from
Hossler, Ghim, Funk and Gavin Hall, a junior from Pittsford, N.Y., to defeat
No. 18 Oklahoma, 4-1.
Southern Cal advanced to its meeting with the Longhorns by
claiming a 4-1 victory over No. 8 Vanderbilt. The winners for the Trojans were
Sean Crocker, a sophomore from Westlake Valley, Calif., Rico Hoey, a junior
from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. who was the runnerup in the individual chase, and
Justin Suh, a freshman from San Jose, Calif.
Oregon ended the reign of defending champion LSU, ranked 12th,
in the quarterfinals with a 3-1-1 decision. The Ducks got wins from Foushee,
Raza and Aaron Wise, a sophomore from Elsinore, Calif. who claimed the
individual national championship a day earlier.
Big Ten champion Illinois reached the semifinals with a 4-1
win over No. 19 South Carolina. The Fighting Illini got victories from
Danielson, Thomas Detry, a senior from Belgium, Edoardo Lipparelli, a freshman
from Italy, and Nick Hardy, a sophomore from Northbrook, Ill.
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