Vanderbilt keeps postseason roll going, grabs lead following opening round of NCAA Championship at Grayhawk

    Vanderbilt, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, continued its postseason roll as the Southeastern Conference champion Commodores grabbed the lead following the opening round of the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. with a 2-over 282 total.

   With three players among the top eight in the individual standings, Vanderbilt, coming off a victory in the Palm Beach Regional at PGA National, took a three-shot lead over No. 27 Oregon, out of the Pac-12, and SEC rival Auburn, ranked 17^th.

   The top 15 teams following Sunday’s third round will survive the cut and play in Monday’s final round with the top eight finishers following 72 holes advancing to match play, which gets under way Tuesday.

   Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, a freshman from Birmingham, Ala. and No. 14 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Cole Sherwood, a sophomore from Austin, Texas and No. 45 in the WAGR, and William Moll, a junior from Houston, led the way for Vanderbilt as they each matched par over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Grayhawk layout with a 70 to land among a group of seven players tied for eighth place in the individual standings.

   Auburn was led by one of the co-leaders in the individual chase, Brendan Valdes, a freshman from Orlando, Fla. who got a share of the top spot with Kansas’ Henry Hiller, a senior from New Zealand, both of whom opened with a sparkling 2-under 68.

   Valdes offset two bogeys with four birdies in his round. Hiller got off to an adventurous start as he made six birdies, two bogeys and just one par on the outgoing nine at Grayhawk. He settled down a little on the back nine with three more bogeys and one more birdie, the seventh of his round.

   Hiller’s strong showing helped the No. 25 Jayhawks, a Big 12 entry, get a share of fourth place in the team standings with another Pac 12 entry Arizona, ranked 26^th, each landing on 6-over 286. The Wildcats are coming off an impressive team win in the Bryan Regional as a six seed at the Traditions Golf Club.

   Big 12 champion Oklahoma, the No. 1 team in the country, was a shot behind Kansas and Arizona in sixth place at 7-over 287. The Sooners are coming off a team win on their home course, the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club, in the Norman Regional.

   North Carolina, ranked No. 5 out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, was a shot behind Oklahoma in seventh place with an 8-over 288 total.

   Oklahoma’s cross-state and Big 12 rival, Oklahoma State, ranked second, was a shot behind North Carolina in eighth place with a 9-over 289. The Cowboys are coming off a team win in the Columbus Regional on the challenging Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University Golf Club.

   Backing up Vanderbilt’s trio at even-par 70 for the Commodores was Reid Davenport, a senior and, like Sherwood, an Austin, Texas guy, and No. 41 in the WAGR. Davenport recorded a solid 2-over 72 to join the group tied for 32^nd place and was the final counter for Vanderbilt.

   Rounding out the Vanderbilt lineup was Harrison Ott, a fifth-year player from Brookfield, Wis. who ended up among the group tied for 62^nd place with a 4-over 74.

   Oklahoma State’s Bo Jin, a sophomore from China and No. 29 in the WAGR, headed a group of five players tied for third place, a shot behind Valdes and Hiller at 1-under 69. Jin was the runnerup to NCAA individual champion Turk Pettit of Clemson a year ago at Grayhawk.

   Joining Jin at 1-under were Arizona teammates Chase Sienkiewicz, a junior from Sacramento, Calif., and Chaz Aurilia, a senior from Phoenix, Ariz., Georgia Southern’s Mason Williams, a senior from Bridgeport, W.Va., and Liberty’s Kieran Vincent, a redshirt senior from Zimbabwe and No. 74 in the WAGR.

   A couple of Arizona State teammates, David Puig, a junior from Spain and No. 9 in the WAGR, and Cameron Sisk, a senior from San Diego and No. 40 in the WAGR, were part of the group tied for eighth place at even-par 70, along with the trio from Vanderbilt.

   Sisk finished in a tie for eighth place in the individual standings a year ago at Grayhawk, just a few miles from the Arizona State campus.

   Rounding out the group tied at even-par were Oregon’s Nate Stember, a junior from Portland, Ore., and Oklahoma’s Drew Goodman, a freshman home boy from Norman, Okla.

   Although his 6-over 76 was a throw-out for Auburn, sophomore Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York, is in the lineup for the Tigers at Grayhawk.

   Liberty, out of the ASUN, got off to a good start as the Flames carded a 10-over 290 and shared ninth place with the Pac-12’s Arizona State.

   Liberty senior Zach Barbin, from the golfing Barbin family of Elkton, Md., was a throw-out for the Flames with an 81. Barbin won two of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s major championships in the summer of 2020, taking the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Lancaster Country Club and the Patterson Cup at The 1912 Club.