Bo Jin, a freshman from China and No. 56 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), will carry a two-shot lead into the final day of the battle for an individual national championship and his Oklahoma State team looks like it will comfortably move into match play as the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. really started to heat up in the desert Southwest Sunday.
Jin, the runnerup in the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, carded his third straight sub-70 round, this one a 1-under-par 69, over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Grayhawk layout for a 9-under 201 total through 54 holes.
Jin will be bidding to become the second straight Oklahoma State player to claim the individual national championship as Matthew Wolff, now a PGA Tour performer, captured the crown the last time the NCAA Championship was contested two springs ago at The Blessing Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Clemson’s Turk Pettit, a senior from Auburn, Ala., is Jin’s closest pursuer as he carded a solid 2-under 68, like Jin his third sub-70 round of the weekend, for a 7-under 203 total.
Jin led the Big 12 champion Cowboys, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, to a second straight 6-under 274 that gave them a 17-shot lead over in-state and Big 12 rival Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in the country, in the battle for the top seed in match play, which gets under way Tuesday.
Oklahoma State, the defending champion two years ago, won the top seed by a whopping 31 shots at The Blessings, but fell to Big 12 rival Texas in the semifinals.
The Cowboys’ solid third round left them with a 12-under 828 total. Oklahoma State was an easy winner of the Stillwater Regional on its home course, Karsten Creek Golf Club. The Sooners posted a solid 2-over 282, but couldn’t quite keep pace with Oklahoma State as they landed on 1-over 841.
No. 10 Arizona State, out of the Pac-12, was a shot behind Oklahoma in third place after the Sun Devils matched par in the third round with a 280 that left them at 2-over 842. It always seemed that Arizona State would feel at home at Grayhawk and the Sun Devils are validating that line of thinking.
Big Ten champion Illinois made its move with a 2-under 278 that left the eighth-ranked Fighting Illini alone in fourth place, two shots behind Arizona State at 4-over 844.
No. 2 Florida State, the Atlantic Coast Conference runnerup, also made a big move, matching Oklahoma State’s 6-under 274 and moving into fifth place at 9-over 849, five shots behind Illinois. Florida State was coming off an impressive victory in the Tallahassee Regional at its home course, the Seminole Legacy Golf Club.
Two more ACC entries, No. 7 Wake Forest and No. 6 North Carolina, and Southeastern Conference champion Vanderbilt, ranked 11th, all landed on 13-over 853 and were tied for sixth place, four shots behind Florida State. They’ll be in the thick of the battle for the eight berths in the match-play bracket during The Golf Channel’s Memorial Day broadcast. It will be must-see TV if you like a little holiday golf drama.
The Demon Deacons carded a solid 2-over 282 while their Tobacco Road rivals, the Tar Heels, slipped a little with a 7-over 287. Vanderbilt matched par with a 280.
West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine, ranked ninth, was a shot behind the trio tied for sixth place, in ninth place at 14-over 854 after the Waves struggled a little with a 9-over 289 in Sunday’s third round. Pepperdine was the top-ranked team in the country when the coronavirus pandemic shut down college golf in the spring of 2020. The Waves have played throughout the 2020-2021 season like a team that feels like something was stolen from it.
ACC champion Clemson has had the extra motivation of trying to win a second national championship for head coach Larry Penley, who is stepping down after leading the program for 38 years. And the Tigers are right there with a chance to make it into match play as they carded a 5-over 285 Sunday that left them two shots behind Pepperdine in 10th place with a 16-over 856 total.
Upstart Sam Houston, the Southland Conference champion that is ranked 31st, also remained in the hunt for a match-play berth as the BearKats registered an 8-over 288 that left them two shots behind Clemson in 11th place at 18-over 858.
No. 26 Georgia Tech will try to give the ACC a sixth team – 27th-ranked
Louisville was in 12th place, six shots behind Sam Houston at
24-over 864 – among the 15 to survive the cut when the Yellow Jackets square
off with the Big 12’s TCU, ranked 37th, in a playoff Monday morning.
Georgia Tech and TCU both landed on 32-over 872 to finish in a tie for 15th place.
Backing up Jin for Oklahoma State was Eugenio Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain and No. 29 in the WAGR who contributed a 2-under 68 to the Cowboys’ strong team showing and was in a tie for eighth place in the individual standings with a 3-under 207 total.
Low Cowboy for the day Sunday was veteran Austin Eckroat, a junior from Edmond, Okla. and No. 12 in the WAGR who fired a 3-under 67 that left him among the group tied for 12th place at even-par 219.
As a freshman, Eckroat was in the lineup when Oklahoma State rolled to the 2018 national championship with a 5-0 victory over Alabama in the Final Match on the Cowboys’ home course at Karsten Creek. Eckroat was also a member of the winning U.S. side in the Walker Cup Match played at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. earlier this month.
Brian Stark, a freshman from Kingsburg, Calif., carded a 4-over 74 that the Cowboys were able to toss and was in the group tied for 34th place at 5-over 215.
Rounding out the Oklahoma State lineup was Aman Gupta, a sophomore from Concord, N.C. and No. 98 in the WAGR who matched par with a counting 70 and was among the group tied for 41st place at 6-over 246.
The best individual round of the day belonged to Wake Forest’s Parker Gillam, a senior from Cary, N.C. who fired a sparkling 6-under 64 to land in a tie for third place with Oklahoma’s Quade Cummins, a redshirt senior from Weatherford, Okla. and No. 16 in the WAGR, at 5-under 205, two shots behind Clemson’s Pettit. Gillam birdied exactly half of the first 12 holes and then rattled off six straight pars to finish his round.
Cummins, another member of the winning U.S. Walker Cup team at Seminole, carded his second straight 2-under 68, his third sub-70 round of the weekend, to join Gillam at 5-under.
Cummins’ Oklahoma teammate, Jonathan Brightwell, a redshirt senior from Charlotte, N.C., headed a trio of players tied for fifth place at 4-under 206. Brightwell, who finished in a tie for second place in the Albuquerque Regional, registered his second straight 1-under 69 and was his third sub-70 round of the tournament.
Brightwell was joined at that figure by Illinois’ Michael Feagles, a graduate student playing closed to his Scottsdale, Ariz. roots, and Arizona State’s Ryggs Johnston, a sophomore from Libby, Mont. Feagles fired a second straight 3-under 67 to move into contention for the individual title while Johnston signed for a 1-over 71.
Joining Oklahoma State’s Chacarra in the tie for eighth place at 3-under 207 was Sam Houston’s William Holcomb, a senior from Crockett, Texas who registered a 1-under 69. Holcomb made a nice run to the semifinals of the 2019 U.S. Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings were Florida State’s John Pak, a senior from Scotch Plains, N.J. and No. 4 in the WAGR, and Illinois’ Jerry Ji, a senior from the Netherlands, both of whom landed on 2-under 208.
Pak was also part of the winning U.S. Walker Cup team at Seminole two years after representing the Red, White & Blue in a U.S. Walker Cup victory at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England. Pak carded a 2-under 68 in Sunday’s third round. Ji matched par with a 70 to join Pak at 2-under.
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