Texas and Oklahoma State will renew their rivalry with East Lake Cup on the line

   The stakes might not be quite as high as they were last spring and the cast has changed quite a bit, but Texas vs. Oklahoma State would matter if they were playing it in on a public course in some Texas-Oklahoma border town.

   The Longhorns and the Cowboys, two of the most storied programs in college golf, will get it on for the East Lake Cup Wednesday after each earned semifinal wins Tuesday at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

   If you were hoping for a rematch of the women’s NCAA Championship’s Final Match between Tobacco Road rivals Wake Forest and Duke, you did not get your wish, but a Wake-Auburn match will certainly be an interesting East Lake Cup final.

   Texas and Oklahoma State are Big 12 rivals. They met in the NCAA semifinals last spring at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. It was a youthful bunch of Longhorns, obviously jacked up to take on a veteran group of Cowboys that had streamrolled their way to the 2018 NCAA crown on their home course at Karsten Creek Golf Club. 

   With hotshot freshman Cole Hammer defeating Matthew Wolff, who in the meantime has already won on the PGA Tour, Texas claimed an emotional 3-2 victory. It was so emotional, the young Longhorns might not have had enough left in the tank to handle a veteran Stanford team that took it to them in the Final Match to win the NCAA Championship.

   Getting a big win from this year’s hotshot freshman, Travis Vick, like Hammer a Houston kid, the Longhorns, No. 25 in the latest Golfstat rankings, rolled to a 4.5-.5 decision over Southeastern Conference power Vanderbilt, ranked 21^st, in a Tuesday semifinal. Texas had earned the top seed in match play with a 10-under 278 total in Monday’s qualifying round.

   Wake Forest had ascended to No. 1 in the Golfstat rankings by the time the Demon Deacons teed it up against a much different Oklahoma State team than the one that dominated college golf for the better part of two seasons. But don’t let that No. 57 ranking fool you, it was still the Cowboys and they pulled out a 3-2 victory to punch their ticket into the East Cup final against Texas.

   Vick pulled out a victory over Vanderbilt’s John Augenstein, a senior from Owensboro, Ky. and No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, on the 19^th hole over the 7,413-yard, par-72 East Lake layout. Augenstein’s recent match-play experience includes a run to the U.S. Amateur final at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in August and a couple of key points for the United States in a come-from-behind victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match held at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England in September.

   Hammer, No. 2 in the WAGR, picked up a 2 and 1 victory over Vanderbilt’s Reid Davenport, a sophomore from Austin, Texas. Hammer was a teammate of Augenstein's on that winning U.S. team at Royal Liverpool. Spencer Soosman, a veteran senior from Westlake Village, Calif., pulled out a 22-hole marathon with William Moll, a freshman from Houston.

   And Texas got another full point from Parker Coody, one of the Longhorns’ twin sophomores from Plano, Texas who claimed a 2 and 1 victory over the Commodores’ Matthew Riedel, a freshman from Houston. Lot of Houston guys in this match.

   Pierceson Coody, the other Coody twin and No. 10 in the WAGR, was awarded a half-point in a draw with Harrison Ott, a junior from Brownfield, Wis., the match halted with the outcome of the team match already decided.

   Oklahoma State clinched its victory over Wake Forest when Aaron Gupta, a sophomore from Concord, N.C., pulled out a 2-up win over Eric Bae, a senior from Pinehurst, N.C.

   The Cowboys’ veteran of all those NCAA battles the last two years, Austin Eckroat, a junior from Edmond, Okla. and No. 21 in the WAGR, earned another point with a 3 and 2 victory over Mark Power, a freshman from Ireland who had earned medalist honors with a 5-under 67 in Monday’s qualifying round.

   Brian Stark, a freshman from Kingsburg, Calif., earned an unlikely point for Oklahoma State with a 2 and 1 victory over Alex Fitzpatrick, a sophomore from England and No. 28 in the WAGR. Fitzpatrick represented GB&I in that Walker Cup Match at Royal Liverpool.

   Wake Forest got a point from Marco Steyn, a junior from South Africa who earned a 3 and 2 decision over Hazen Newman, a freshman from Las Vegas. The other point for the Demon Deacons came from Eugenio Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain who claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Rayhan Thomas, a freshman from the United Arab Emirates.

   Sounds like the East Lake Cup is going to get out in front of some anticipated weather and play the matches early, so you can catch some pretty high-quality golf Wednesday morning on The Golf Channel. It’s a beautiful thing.

   The Wake Forest women, No. 4 in the latest Golfstat rankings, will be a favorite in the East Lake Cup final against No. 30 Auburn.

   But the Tigers faced pretty long odds against reigning national champion Duke, ranked 11^th, in Tuesday’s semifinals and claimed a 3-2 victory over an East Lake layout that measured 6,280 yards and played to a par of 72 for the gals. Duke had earned the top seed with a 2-under 286 in Monday’s qualifying round.

   Auburn got the advantage when Megan Schofill, a freshman from Monticello, Fla. rolled to a 4 and 3 decision over Miranda Wang, a redshirt junior from China. You got an idea that Schofill might be a player when she reached the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss.

   Brooke Sansom, a redshirt sophomore from Pike Road, Ala., stunned Gina Kim, a sophomore from Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 31 in the Women’s WAGR, 3 and 2. Kim was the low amateur in last spring’s U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston.

   The clincher for the Tigers came from Mychael O’Berry, a junior from Hoover, Ala., who rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Ana Belac, a senior from Slovenia who had been one of the qualifying co-medalists Monday with a 3-under 69.

   Erica Shepherd, Duke’s talented freshman from Greenwood, Ind., earned a point for the Blue Devils with a 1-up win over Kaleigh Telfer and Jaravee Boonchant, a junior from Thailand and No. 27 in the Women’s WAGR, accounted for Duke’s other point with a 3 and 2 victory over Julie McCarthy, a junior from Ireland.

   Sansom, O’Berry, Telfer and McCarthy were all in the Auburn lineup when the Tigers were dusted, 4.5-.5, by Wake Forest in the semifinals at The Blessings last spring.

   The reigning ACC champion Demon Deacons got a couple of clutch performances to claim a 3.5-1.5 victory over the Pac-12’s Arizona, ranked eighth.

   Siyun Liu, a senior from China, was 2-down with four holes to play, but turned the tables on Therese Warner, a freshman from Kennewick, Wash., to claim a 1-up victory. Vanessa Knecht, a sophomore from Switzerland and the other co-medalist in Monday’s qualifying, birdied the 18^th hole in a 1-up win over Gile Bite Starkute, a freshman from Lithuania.

   The Demon Deacons also got a full point from their best player, Emilia Migliaccio, a junior from Cary, N.C. and No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR who claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Sandra Nordass, a senior from Norway and a veteran of the Wildcats’ run to the 2018 national title at Karsten Creek. Migliaccio struck gold for the United States in the individual women’s golf competition at the Pan American Games last summer in Lima, Peru.

   Ya Chun Chang, a sophomore from Taiwan, got a full point for Arizona with a 5 and 4 victory over Rachel Kuehn, a freshman from Asheville, N.C. Wake Forest’s Lauren Walsh, a freshman from Ireland, battled Vivian Hou, a freshman from Taiwan, to a draw to give each team a half-point.