The 2019 NCAA Championship will be played at The Blessings
Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., the home course of Arkansas.
It seemed the Razorbacks would be a bit of a long shot to
give their home fans a thrill by getting to the NCAA Championship. That was
before Arkansas made a stunning run to its first Southeastern Conference
championship since 1995 with a 3.5-1.5 victory over defending champion Auburn
in the match-play final Sunday at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course in St.
Simons Island, Ga.
The Razorbacks headed to St. Simons Island at No. 37 in the
latest Golfstat rankings. They snuck
into the match-play bracket with a seventh-place finish after three rounds of
stroke play.
They proceeded to stun Vanderbilt, No. 4 before and after
the SEC Championship, 3-2 in Saturday morning’s quarterfinals and knock off Texas
A&M, which moved up from No. 27 to No. 20 after its showing in St. Simons
Island, 3-2, in Saturday afternoon’s semifinals.
That earned Arkansas a date with Auburn, which took off
after its SEC title a year ago and went all the way to the NCAA semifinals at
Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla., in Sunday’s title match.
The Tigers, whose ranking improved from No. 13 to No. 11,
had been the top seed after a convincing 16-shot victory in the match-play
qualifying. But hey, match play is match play. Expect the unexpected. And when
it was over, Arkansas was the SEC champion and had moved up to No. 31 in the
rankings.
And, as I mentioned in last week’s post on Ole Miss’ equally
stunning run to the SEC women’s crown, beware the fearless freshman.
In this case it was Arkansas’ Julian Perico, a freshman from
Peru. Perico capped off a 3-0 run through the match-play bracket by defeating
Auburn’s Graysen Huff, a junior from Eagle, Idaho who had lost in a playoff for
the SEC individual title a couple of days earlier, 1-up.
Perico and Huff came to the 18th hole of the
Seaside Course all square. Huff missed the green, but Perico did not and his
routine par secured the title for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas also got full points from William Buhl, a junior
from Fairhope, Ala. who claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Jacob Solomon, a senior
from Dublin, Calif., and Tyson Reeder, a junior from Edmond, Okla., who edged
Trace Crowe, a senior from Bluffton, S.C., 2-up.
Luis Garza, a junior from Mexico, was locked in an
extra-holes battle with Jovan Rebula, a junior from South Africa who had
defeated his teammate Huff in the playoff to claim the SEC individual crown,
when Perico’s win sealed the victory for Arkansas. The Garza-Rebula match went
into the books as a draw.
Auburn’s lone full point came from Brandon Mancheno, a
sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla. who was such a big factor in the Tigers’ run
to the NCAA semifinals a year ago. Mancheno cruised to a 6 and 5 victory over
Arkansas’ Mason Overstreet, a junior from Kingfisher, Okla., capping a dominant
3-0 run through the match-play bracket for Mancheno.
Perico and Reeder pulled out heart-stopping victories in 19
holes in Arkansas’ 3-2 victory over Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals. Perico
edged Harrison Ott, a sophomore form Brookfield, Wis., and Perico outlasted
fellow freshman Reid Davenport of Austin, Texas.
The Razorbacks’ other full point against the Commodores came
from Garza, who claimed a 5 and 4 victory over Vanderbilt veteran Will Gordon,
a senior from Davidson, N.C.
Garza pulled out a 19th hole triumph and Perico
and Buhl also won their matches in Arkansas’ victory over Texas A&M in
Saturday afternoon’s semifinals.
Auburn had rolled to a 4-1 victory over South Carolina,
which fell back from No. 15 to No. 17 in the wake of the SEC Championship, in
Saturday morning’s quarterfinals on the strength of match wins by Solomon, Rebula,
Huff and Mancheno.
Rebula, the nephew of Ernie Els and the No. 26 player in the
World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), established his match-play credentials
during Auburn’s two matches in the NCAA Championship last spring and again in
the summer when he captured The Amateur Championship at Royal Aberdeen Golf
Club in Scotland.
He came up with a crucial point in the Tigers’ 3-2 victory
over No. 45 Kentucky in the semifinals as he needed 21 holes to finally take
out the Wildcats’ Fred Allen Meyer, a senior from Nicholasville, Ky. Crowe and
Mancheno also earned full points with match wins for Auburn.
Kentucky had reached the semifinals with a 4-1 victory over
Tennessee, which fell from No. 22 to No. 33 in the aftermath of the SEC
Championship. Kentucky’s winners included Allen Meyer, Cullan Brown, a freshman
from Eddyville, Ky., and two seniors from Germany, Max Mehles and Lukas Euler.
Texas A&M reached the semifinals with a 3-2 victory over
No. 16 Georgia in Saturday morning’s quarterfinals behind match wins from
Chandler Phillips, a senior from Huntsville, Texas and No. 10 in the WAGR,
Walker Lee, a sophomore from Houston, and Brandon Smith, a junior from Frisco,
Texas.
That trio of Aggies are all holdovers from a Texas A&M
team that rolled to the team title in the NCAA Bryan Regional on its home
course and reached match play at Karsten Creek, giving eventual national
champion Oklahoma State a battle in the quarterfinals before falling.
Auburn took command of stroke play earlier in the week with
a sparkling 11-under-par 269 over the 7,005-yard, par-70 Seaside Course layout
in the second round that gave the Tigers a 19-under 541 total going into the
final round.
The Tigers’ bettered par for a third straight round in
Friday’s final round with a 5-under 275 for a 24-under 816 total. Vanderbilt,
the highest-ranked team in the field, closed with a 2-over 282, but was the
only other team to finish three rounds under par at 8-under 832.
Texas A&M and Kentucky were another 11 shots behind
Vanderbilt in a tie for third at 3-over 843. The Aggies struggled to a
final-round 289 and the Wildcats were only a shot better with a 288.
Georgia and Tennessee were another three shots behind Texas
A&M and Kentucky in a tie for sixth at 6-over 846. The Bulldogs had matched
Auburn’s opening round of 8-under 272 and added a solid 1-under 279 in
Thursday’s second round before finishing up with a 295. Tennessee followed up a
solid 6-under 274 in the second round with a final-round 292.
It was nine more shots back to the eventual champion,
Arkansas, which finished seventh at 15-over 855. The Razorbacks opened with a
1-over 281 and added a solid 6-under 274 before faltering with a final-round
300.
South Carolina grabbed the final spot in the match-play
bracket as the Gamecocks finished eighth at 16-over 856, a shot behind
Arkansas. South Carolina, like Arkansas, struggled in the final round with a
20-over 300.
Auburn’s Huff was nearly flawless in the first two rounds of
stroke play, adding a 4-under 66 to his opening-round 67 that left him at
7-under 133. Rebula trailed his teammate by two after adding a 3-under 67 to his
opening-round 68.
But Rebula caught Huff with a 3-under 67 to Huff’s 69 as
they both finished at 8-under 202. A birdie on the fourth hole of the playoff
finally gave Rebula the edge on his teammate.
Crowe sandwiched a 2-under 68 with a pair of 69s to finish
in a tie for sixth with Texas A&M’s Phillips at 4-under 206.
Solomon finished alone in 14th place as he
followed up an opening-round 71 with a 2-under 68 before matching par in the
final round with a 70.
Mancheno opened with a 2-under 68 and Auburn was so good in
the second round that his even-par 70 was a throw-out. He closed with a 76 to
finish in the group tied for 24th at 4-over 214. He was saving his
best stuff for match play.
Vanderbilt’s Gordon finished alone in third at 6-under 204,
two shots behind Rebula and Huff. Gordon grabbed the lead with an opening round
of 5-under 65 before matching par with a 70 in the second round and closing
with a 1-under 69.
Georgia’s Davis Thompson, a sophomore from Auburn, Ala., and
Tennessee’s Hunter Walcott, a redshirt sophomore from Burns, Tenn., finished tied
for fourth at 5-under 205. Thompson added a pair of 2-under 68s to his
opening-round 69 and Walcott opened with a 2-under 68 and added a 3-under 67
before matching par in the final round with a 70.
Texas A&M’s Phillips fired a 5-under 65 in Thursday’s
second round and stood just a shot out of the lead in the individual chase
before closing with a 72 that left him tied for sixth with Auburn’s Crowe at
4-under 206.
Foreshadowing his strong showing in match play, Arkansas’
Perico opened with a 4-under 66 and added a 67 to share the lead with Auburn’s
Huff. He struggled in the final round with a 4-over 74 to finish in eighth
place at 3-under 207.
Give the freshman credit. He quickly left any disappointment
about that final round of stroke play behind him and played a huge role in the
Razorbacks’ run to an SEC Championship.
A year ago, all 14 SEC teams earned invitations to an NCAA
regional. When this year’s fields were unveiled Wednesday night, only 13 of the 14 teams made it this
spring.
Vanderbilt is the only No. 1 seed out of the SEC in the
Athens Regional, a field that includes four other SEC teams, including the host
Bulldogs.
Auburn is seeded second in the Louisville Regional, where
the Tigers will run into top-seeded Oklahoma State, the defending national
champion which has been ranked No. 1 pretty much from the start of the
wraparound 2018-’19 season.
Arkansas is seeded sixth in the Austin Regional, where host
Texas is the top seed. You’d have to think that winning an SEC Championship
will give the Razorbacks a huge confidence boost. They’ll be going home either
way after that, either to clean out their lockers or, preferably, to represent
on their home course in the NCAA Championship.
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