Texas marches into NCAA Championship with team victory in Noblesville Regional

    For the 14^th straight season and for the remarkable 70^th time in the history of the program, Texas is headed for the NCAA Championship.

   The Longhorns, No. 5 in the latest Golfstat rankings and the top seed, took control of the Noblesville Regional at The Sagamore Club right from the start and never let go. Texas closed with a solid 5-under 283 in Wednesday’s final round over the 7,173-yard, par-72 Sagamore Club layout for a 20-under 844 total.

   Maybe more impressive was the fact that Texas did it with arguably its top gun, Cole Hammer, a junior from Houston and No. 13 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) off his game with a throw-out 79 that left him in a tie for 49^th place with a 2-over 218 total.

   It’s also understandable since Hammer is only a few weeks removed from an emotional individual victory in a spectacularly competitive Big 12 Championship at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. and less than two weeks removed from leading the United States to a hard-fought 14-12 victory over Great Britain & Ireland in an emotional Walker Cup Match at the iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.

   Hammer entered the final round just a shot out of the lead in the individual chase, but the Longhorns in pretty solid shape as far as the ultimate goal – earning a berth to the NCAA Championship – was concerned. And Hammer simply hit the wall.

   Tennessee, out of the Southeastern Conference, and Atlantic Coast Conference entry North Carolina shared second place, each landing on 15-under 849, five shots behind Texas. The Volunteers, ranked 18^th and seeded third, finished up with a 7-under 281. The Tar Heels, ranked eighth and seeded second, closed with a solid 8-under 280.

   North Carolina’s ACC rival, Louisville, ranked 28^th and seeded fifth, closed with a 4-under 284 to finish five shots behind the Tar Heels and Tennessee in fourth place with a 10-under 854.

   Alabama-Birmingham, ranked 38^th and seeded seventh, roared up the leaderboard with the best team round of the final round, a 13-under 275 that enabled the Blazers, a Conference USA representative, to grab the fifth and final berth to the NCAA Championship with a 5-under 859 total.

   Parker Coody, a junior from Plano, Texas and No. 71 in the WAGR, was the low Longhorn and, perhaps more importantly, the low Coody as he saved his best for last, a 5-under 67 to finish in a tie for fifth place at 6-under 210. Travis Vick, a sophomore from Houston, finished up with a 1-under 71 to end up in a tie for seventh place at 5-under 211.

   Pierceson Coody, the Longhorns' other twin grandson of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody and No. 2 in the WAGR, matched par in the final round and finished alone in eighth place at 4-under 212. Pierceson Coody was also a teammate of Hammer’s on the winning U.S. Walker Cup side at Seminole. Hammer was next with his final-round 79 dropping him down to 2-over.

   Rounding out the Texas lineup was Mason Nome, a sophomore from France who closed with a counting 1-over 73 to finish in the group tied for 42^nd place with a 5-over 221 total.

   The individual chase turned into a shootout among a foursome of players whose only avenue to Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the NCAA Championship tees off May 28, was to earn the lone individual berth up for grabs.

   Purdue’s Cole Bradley, a sophomore home boy from West Lafayette, Ind., won that battle as he birdied five of his last seven holes to fire a 7-under 65 and win the individual crown with a 10-under 206 total. West Virginia senior Mark Goetz, a Greensburg native and a product of The Kiski School, closed with a final-round 68, but fell two shots short of a trip to nationals with an 8-under 208 total.

   Arkansas State’s Zan Luka Stim, a junior from Slovenia, and Missouri’s Ross Steelman, a redshirt sophomore from Columbia, Mo., both finished with a sparkling 6-under 66 to end up in a tie for third place at 7-under 209.

   In the Tallahassee Regional, Florida State, ranked second and the top seed, completed a wire-to-wire romp to the team title on its home course, the Seminole Legacy Golf Club. The Seminoles matched the accomplishment of their women’s team last week at the Louisville Regional by earning the first regional crown in the history of the program.

   Florida State, the runnerup in last month’s ACC Championship match-play final, closed with a 10-under 278 over the 7,505-yard, par-72 Seminole Legacy layout for a 34-under 830 total.

   SEC power Georgia, ranked fourth and seeded second, finished up with an 8-under 280 to earn runnerup honors with a 17-under 847 total. That left the Bulldogs a shot ahead of in-state rival Georgia Tech, an ACC rival of Florida State’s. The Yellow Jackets, obviously a little underrated at No. 27 and seeded fifth, closed with a 3-under 285 to take third place with a 16-under 848 total.

   ASUN champion Liberty, ranked 16^th and seeded third, was another shot behind Georgia Tech in fourth place with a 15-under 849 total after the Flames finished up with a 1-over 289. The Big 12’s Texas Christian, ranked 40^th and seeded seventh, fired  a final round of 6-under 282 to grab the final berth out of the Tallahassee Regional to the NCAA Championship with a 9-under 855 total.

   The Big Ten’s Ohio State, seeded 11^th, could only match par in the final round with a 288 and saw its gallant bid to make it to nationals come up two shots short as the Buckeyes finished in sixth place with a a 7-under 857 total.

   Leading the way for Florida State were Vincent Norrman, a graduate student from Sweden and No. 14 in the WAGR, and John Pak, a senior from Scotch Plains, N.J. and No. 3 in the WAGR, who finished third and fourth, respectively, in the individual standings.

   Norrman closed with a 3-under 69 to finish with a 9-under 207 total while Pak, who, like Texas’ Hammer, became a two-time U.S. Walker Cup winner a couple of weekends ago at Seminole, matched Norrman’s 69 to end up with an 8-under 208 total.

   Florida State got a really nice showing from Brett Roberts, a freshman from Coral Springs, Fla. who matched par in the final round to finish in a tie for fifth place with a 7-under 209 total.

   Cole Anderson, a redshirt sophomore from Camden, Maine, closed with a 2-over 74 to land in the group tied for 14^th place at 4-under 212. The best score of the final round for the Seminoles was turned in by Frederik Kjettrup, a freshman from Denmark who fired a 4-under 68 to end up among the group tied for 17^th place with a 3-under 213 total.

   The individual title went to yet another U.S. Walker Cup team member, Georgia’s Davis Thompson, a senior from Auburn, Ala. who added a 68 to the pair of 67s he registered in the first two rounds as he edged Jacksonville’s Michael Sakane by a shot with a 14-under 202 total.

   Sakane did earn the individual berth to nationals out of the Tallahassee Regional as the redshirt junior from Japan closed with a 2-under 70 to finish with a 13-under 203 total.

   Junior Zach Barbin, winner of a pair of Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships last summer – the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Lancaster Country Club and the Patterson Cup at The 1912 Club – will head to the NCAA Championship with Liberty.

   Barbin of the golfing Barbins of Elkton, Md. struggled a little in the final round with a 4-over 76, but finished in the group tied for 23^rd place at 1-over 217 and was a solid contributor to the run to nationals by the Flames.

   In the Kingston Springs Regional, SEC champion Vanderbilt, behind William Moll, a sophomore from Houston who finished in third place in the individual standings, came on strong with a final round of 9-under 275 to win what somehow was the first regional crown in the history of the Commodores’ decorated program.

   The final-round surge gave Vanderbilt an 18-under 834 total at the Golf Club of Tennessee and an easy 11-shot victory over SEC rival Arkansas.

   The Razorbacks, ranked 24^th and seeded fourth, closed with a 2-under 282 over the 7,107-yard, par-71 Golf Club of Tennessee layout to earn runnerup honors with a 7-under 845 total.

   Mountain West Conference representative San Diego State, ranked 26^th and seeded fifth, had taken a two-shot lead in the team chase into the final round. The Aztecs finished up with a 6-over 290, but still held on to a berth to nationals as they ended up two shots behind Arkansas in third place with a 5-under 847 total.

   The top two seeds, both out of the ACC, Clemson, ranked third and the top seed, and North Carolina State, ranked 10^th and seeded second, grabbed the final two berths to Grayhawk out of the Kingston Springs Regional as they landed in a tie for fourth place at 3-under 849 total.

   ACC champion Clemson carded a final round of 5-under 283 to make sure it sent legendary coach Larry Penley to the NCAA Championship in the last of his 38 years at the helm. It marked the 30^th time in Penley’s remarkable tenure at Clemson that his Tigers advanced to nationals. I’m thinking Penley’s players are thinking there would be no better way to send off their beloved coach than to win a national championship.

   Noll closed with a 4-under 67 to lead the way for Vanderbilt with a 6-under 207 total. Reid Davenport, a junior from Austin, Texas, was solid all week and matched par in the final round with a 71 to finish in a tie for fourth place with a 5-under 208 total for the Commodores.

   Vanderbilt’s two other Texans, sophomore Matthew Riedel, another Houstonian, and freshman Cole Sherwood, like Davenport, an Austin guy, landed among the group tied for 13^th place, each finishing with a 2-under 211 total. Riedel closed with a solid 3-under 68 while Sherwood contributed a 1-under 70 to the Commodores’ final-round surge.

   Michael Shears, a junior from Franklin, Tenn., also closed with a 1-under 70 to end up in the group tied for 28^th place with a 2-over 215 total.

   The individual title went to San Diego State’s Puwit Anupansuebsai, a senior from Thailand who fired his second straight 4-under 67 to finish with an 8-under 205 total.

   Arkansas’ Tyson Reeder, a graduate student from Edmond, Okla., had the best round of the day in the final round, a sparkling 6-under 65 that left him alone in second place, a shot behind Anupansuebsai with a 7-under 206 total.

   Loyola of Maryland senior Evan Brown, a scholastic standout at Kennett, came up a shot short of earning the lone individual ticket out of Kingston Springs to nationals as he matched par for the second straight day with a 71 to finish among the group tied for eighth place with a 4-under 209 total.

   That lone individual spot in nationals went to Michigan State’s James Piot, a senior from Canton, Mich. whose birdie on the par-5 17^th hole helped him register a final round of 4-under 68 and finish among the group tied for fourth place with a 5-under 208 total.

   In the Albuquerque Regional, Texas Tech gave the Big 12 a remarkable third regional team champion as the Red Raiders, ranked 22^nd and seeded fourth, fired a final round of 11-under 277 at the Championship Course at the University of New Mexico to cruise to a 10-shot victory over the Pac-12’s Arizona State, ranked 12^th and seeded second, and Oregon State, ranked 41^st and seeded seventh.

   The sparkling finish by Texas Tech gave it a 26-under 868 total. Arizona State closed with a solid 4-under 284 to earn a share of second place with a 16-under 848 total. The Sun Devils will be playing in an NCAA Championship close to home at Grayhawk in Scottsdale.

   Surprising Oregon State had taken a five-shot lead into the final round in Albuquerque. The Beavers finished up with a 4-over 292, but easily held on to punch their ticket to Grayhawk as they matched Arizona State’s 848 total.

   Texas Tech’s Big 12 rival Oklahoma, the No. 1 team in the country and the top seed, turned it on in the final round with a 10-under 278 to finish in fourth place with a 13-under 851 total. The Sooners weren’t sharp in the first two rounds, but they got the job done and will still be one of the teams to beat at Grayhawk.

   Somehow, San Diego will be represented by a second program at nationals as San Diego joined San Diego State in the field at Grayhawk with a final round of 7-under 281 that enabled the Toreros to grab the final berth to the NCAA Championship in Albuquerque with a 12-under 852 total.

   Texas Tech was led by Ludvig Aberg, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 5 in the WAGR who closed with a 4-under 68 to finish among the group tied for fourth place with a 9-under 207 total. Garrett Martin, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas, matched Aberg’s final-round 68 to land among the group tied for 10^th place with a 6-under 210 total.

   Baard Skogen, a freshman from Norway, closed with a 1-under 71 to end up in the group tied for 15^th place with a 4-under 212 total.

   Rounding out the Texas Tech lineup were Kyle Hogan, a redshirt senior from Cypress, Texas, and Andy Lopez, a senior from Plano, Texas, both of whom landed in the group tied for 21^st place at 2-under 214. Hogan matched par in the final round with a 72 that the Red Raiders had the luxury of tossing and Lopez finished up with a 2-under 70.

   South Carolina came up short of team berth to nationals with a final round of 5-over 293 that left them in ninth place, but the Gamecocks will be represented at Grayhawk by Ryan Hall, a junior from Knoxville, Tenn. who added a final-round 69 to the pair of 4-under 68s he fired in the first two rounds to claim the individual title with an 11-under 205 total.

   Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett, a junior from Madisonville, Texas, closed with a 5-under 67, but finished a shot behind Hall in a tie for second place with Oklahoma’s Jonathan Brightwell, a redshirt senior form Charlotte, N.C., each landing on 10-under 206.

   Brightwell was a steady hand for the struggling Sooners -- struggling for them anyway -- all week and he closed with a 2-under 70.

   Hall’s teammate at South Carolina, sophomore Jack Wall, a quarterfinalist in the 2019 BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Stonewall who plays out of the Manasquan River Golf Club at the Jersey Shore, closed with a 4-over 76 to end up in the group tied for 58^th place with a 7-over 225 total.

   The Pac-12’s Stanford, winner of the last NCAA Championship in 2019 at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., never got it going in Albuquerque. The Cardinal closed with a 4-under 284 to finish in a tie for seventh place with an 8-under 856 total.

   Senior Nate Menon, the 2016 PIAA Class AA champion as a junior at Wyomissing, just missed being in the lineup for the 2019 run to a national championship. Finally earning a spot in the lineup for regionals, Menon was solid, closing with a 1-under 71 to finish among the group tied for 21^st place with a 2-under 214 total.

   In the Cle Elum Regional, the Southern Conference’s East Tennessee State, ranked 50^th and seeded eighth, completed its unlikely run to the team crown, the first regional crown for the Bucs in 20 years.

   East Tennessee State closed with a 4-over 288 over the Suncadia Resort’s Tumble Creek Club course that left it with a 14-under 828 total, 10 shots clear of runnerup San Francisco, ranked 25^th and seeded fifth. With East Tennessee State winning the Cle Elum Regional, Vanderbilt capturing the team crown in the Kingston Springs Regional and Tennessee sharing second place in the Noblesville Regional, you’d have to say Wednesday was a pretty good day for college golf in Tennessee.

   East Tennessee State was led by the individual champion, Shiso Go, a senior from Japan who fired a final round of 4-under 67 over the 7,069-yard, par-71 Tumble Creek layout to finish with an 8-under 205 total and edge Wake Forest’s Alex Fitzpatrick, a junior from England and No. 11 in the WAGR, and Pepperdine’s Joey Vrzich, a senior from El Cajon, Calif., by a shot.

   The Dons, out of the West Coast Conference, closed with a 3-over 287 to finish with a 4-under 848 total.

   The ACC’s Wake Forest, ranked sixth and the top seed, closed with a 1-over 285 to comfortably assure itself of a ticket to Grayhawk with a 2-under 850 total that was two shots behind San Francisco in third place.

   West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine, ranked seventh and seeded second, was a shot behind the Demon Deacons in fourth place as the Waves closed with a 1-under 283 to end up with a 1-under 851 total.

   The SEC’s Florida Gators, ranked 17^th and seeded third, traveled all the across the country to Tumble Creek and earned themselves another road trip to Grayhawk and Scottsdale as they matched par in the final round with a 284 to grab the final ticket to the NCAA Championship out of the Cle Elum Regional with a 6-over 858 total.

   Backing up Go for East Tennessee State was Archie Davies, the redshirt freshman from England whose course-record  63 in Tuesday’s second round fueled the surge to the top of the leaderboard by the Bucs. Davies cooled off considerably in Wednesday’s final round with a 5-over 76, but still finished in a tie for fourth place with a 6-under 207 total.

   Trevor Hulbert, a graduate student from Orlando, Fla., gave the Bucs three finishers in the top six as he matched par in the final round with a 71 to end up in the group tied for sixth place at 3-under 210.

   Remi Chartier, a redshirt freshman from Canada, closed with a 4-over 75 to join the group tied for 22^nd place with a 4-over 217 total. Jack Rhea, a senior from Jonesborough, Tenn., rounded out the East Tennessee State lineup as he also finished up with a 75 to land among the group tied for 47^th place with a 9-over 222 total.

   Fitzpatrick, who played on the losing GB&I team in the Walker Cup Match at Seminole, matched par in the final round with a 71 to get his share of second place with Pepperdine’s Vrzich at 7-under 206. Vrzich closed with a sizzling 6-under 65 to get it to 7-under.