Texas Tech grabs one-shot lead as NCAA Championship tees off at Grayhawk

    Texas Tech, No. 22 in the latest Golfstat rankings, picked up right where it left off in Albuquerque as qualifying for match play in the NCAA Championship got under way Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   The Red Raiders, out of the Big 12, came on strong in the final two rounds to capture the team crown in last week’s Albuquerque Regional played at the Championship Course at the University of New Mexico. Texas Tech kept it going in the NCAA Championship as the Red Raiders carded a 4-under-par 286 over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Grayhawk layout to take a two-shot lead over No. 31 Sam Houston.

   The Southland Conference champion BearKats had two of the three players tied for second place in the individual standings on their way to a solid 2-under 278.

   One of those two players, William Holcomb, a senior from Crockett, Texas and No. 83 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), was ruled out of the final round of the Stillwater Regional due to coronavirus contact tracing when he was in contention for the individual title. The BearKats shrugged off the absence of their best player to finish fourth in the team standings and earn the first trip to nationals in the history of the program.

   No. 9 Pepperdine, the West Coast Conference champion, was another shot behind Sam Houston in third place with a 1-under 279 total.

   Lurking in a tie for fourth place at even-par 280 were cross-state rivals and Big 12 powers Oklahoma State, ranked third, and Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in the country. Oklahoma State rolled to the team title in the Stillwater Regional on the Cowboys’ home course, the Karsten Creek Golf Club.

   No. 2 Florida State, which, like Oklahoma State, won the team title in the Tallahassee Regional on its home course, the Seminole Legacy Golf Club, was a shot behind Oklahoma State and Oklahoma in sixth place with a 1-over 281. Arizona State, out of the Pac-12 and playing close to home, was three shots behind Florida State in seventh place at 4-over 284.

   No. 32 Oregon State, another Pac-12 entry, continued its strong postseason roll as the Beavers shared eighth place with No. 35 San Diego State, each landing on 6-over 286. Four of the five teams that punched their ticket to Grayhawk out of the Albuquerque Regional -- Texas Tech, Arizona State, Oregon State and Oklahoma -- landed among the top nine in the team standings following Friday’s opening round.

   Leading the way for Texas Tech was its talented Swede, sophomore Ludvig Aberg, who is No. 5 in the WAGR. Aberg fired a 2-under 68 and landed in a group of 12 players tied for fifth place.

   Andy Lopez, a senior from Plano, Texas, and Baard Skogen, a freshman from Norway, backed up Aberg as each carded a 1-under 69 and were among the group tied for 17^th place.

   Kyle Hogan, a redshirt senior from Cypress, Texas, made it four Red Raiders at par or better as he matched par with a 70 and was among the group tied for 28^th place. Garrett Martin, a sophomore from Houston, rounded out the Texas Tech lineup as the Red Raiders had the luxury of tossing his 1-over 71 that left him in the group tied for 44^th place.

   Purdue’s Cole Bradley, a junior home boy from West Lafayette, Ind., fired a flawless four-birdie, no-bogey 4-under 66 to take the lead in the individual standings. Bradley, the son of Purdue men’s coach Rob Bradley, had surged to the individual title in last week’s Noblesville Regional with a scintillating final round of 7-under 65 at The Sagamore Club.

   Bradley made birdies at the second, fourth, 11^th and 16^th holes and parred the rest to grab a one-shot lead.

   Sam Houston’s Holcomb and his teammate, Ting-Wei Hsich, a freshman from Taiwan, each carded a 3-under 67 and were part of the trio tied for second place, a shot behind Bradley.

   Rounding out that group was Oklahoma State’s Bo Jin, a freshman from China and No. 56 in the WAGR. Jin, the runnerup in the individual chase in the Stillwater Regional, was the runnerup in the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

   In addition to Texas Tech's Aberg, three members of the winning U.S. Walker Cup side earlier this month at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., Florida’s Ricky Castillo, a sophomore from Yorba Linda, Calif. and No. 10 in the WAGR, Florida State’s John Pak, a senior from Scotch Plains, N.J. and No. 4 in the WAGR, and Pepperdine’s William Mouw, a sophomore from Chino, Calif. and No. 25 in the WAGR, were part of the 12-player logjam tied for fifth place at 2-under 68.

   Castillo was the lone undefeated American with a 4-0 record in a 14-12 victory for the U.S. over Great Britain & Ireland at Seminole. It was a second Walker Cup victory for Pak, who was on the U.S. team that won at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England in 2019.

   San Diego State’s Puwit Anupansuebsai, a senior from Thailand who was the individual winner in last week’s Kingston Springs Regional at the Golf Club of Tennessee, was also in the group at 2-under.

   Top-ranked Oklahoma was led by Jonathan Brightwell, a redshirt senior from Charlotte, N.C. and No. 42 in the WAGR who got it in at 2-under. He was joined in that big group tied for fifth place by Big 12 rival Travis Vick, a sophomore at Texas from Houston. Vick and the No. 5 Longhorns, the team champion in the Noblesville Regional last week, have some work to do after struggling to a 14-over 294 that left them in a tie for 24^th place.

   Rounding out the group at 2-under were Clemson’s Turk Pettit, a senior from Auburn, Ala., Arizona State’s Mason Anderson, a senior from Chandler, Ariz., Louisville’s Trevor Johnson, a redshirt sophomore from Brentwood, Tenn., Utah’s Tristan Mandur, a junior from Canada, and Jacksonville’s Michael Sakane, a redshirt junior from Japan.

   ASUN champion Liberty struggled, landing in a tie for 26^th place with a 15-over 295 total. Flames junior Zach Barbin, winner of two of last summer's Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships, the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Lancaster Country Club and the Patterson Cup at The 1912 Club, carded a 79 and was among the group tied for 149^th place. Barbin is part of the golfing Barbin family of Elkton, Md.

   Match-play qualifying continues Saturday. The field will be cut to the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on the advancing teams following Sunday’s third round. An individual national champion will be crowned Monday when The Golf Channel cameras start rolling and the top eight teams at the end of Monday’s fourth round will advance to match play beginning Tuesday.