Mitchell earns a top-10 finish for Drexel in Bandon Dunes Championship

   It was a cross-country road trip for Ben Feld’s Drexel golf team, but when the destination is the Bandon Dunes Course at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the rugged Oregon coastline, it makes the trek a little more special.

   The weather can get pretty rough at Bandon and it sounds like the 18 teams gathered for the Bandon Dunes Championship got a little taste of some typical Bandon weather in Sunday’s opening round. Pretty sure it was the latest of what has been a long line of atmospheric rivers inundated the Bandon Dunes resort, forcing Monday’s second round to be canceled.

   The tournament was reduced to 36 holes and the scores would indicate that the weather calmed down considerably for Tuesday’s final round.

   Drexel’s Griffin Mitchell, a junior from New Albany, Ohio, took advantage of the better conditions to card a sparkling 4-under-par 68 over the 6,676-yard, par-72 Bandon Dunes Course layout that enabled him to finish among a foursome of players tied for eighth place with a 1-over 145 total.

   Mitchell had opened with a 5-over 77 in the windy conditions of Sunday’s opening round.

   Mitchell’s strong showing helped the Dragons finish in 15^th place in the 18-team field with a 35-over 611 total. Drexel struggled in the opening round with a 317, but bounced back with a solid 6-over 294 in Tuesday’s final round.

   Playing on a tough golf course in tough conditions just might pay dividends next month when Drexel tees it up in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship at Dataw Island’s Cotton Dike Course in South Carolina.

   The Pac-12’s two Oregon entries, Oregon and Oregon State, finished first and tied for second, respectively, with the Ducks, behind individual champion Owen Avrit, a senior from Arroyo Grande, Calif., rallying in Tuesday’s final round to claim the team crown for the second straight year.

   Oregon opened with an 11-over 299 on a day when breaking 300 was an accomplishment that left the Ducks three shots behind Boise State, which opened with an 8-over 296.

   In more benign conditions for Tuesday’s final round, Oregon posted the best team round of the tournament, a 6-under 282, to finish with a 5-over 581 total.

   Avrit opened with a solid 2-under 70 in Sunday’s difficult conditions and contributed another 70 to Oregon’s strong finish as he won his third career individual title with a 4-under 140 total, two shots clear of runnerup Max Charles, a fifth-year player at Boise State from Australia.

   Oregon, which reached the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. last spring by advancing out of the Stockton Regional as a five seed, improved from No. 28 to No. 26 in the Golfstat rankings with its victory at Bandon Dunes. The Ducks were the only team in the top 30 going into the Bandon Dunes Championship, so any other references to rankings for the rest of this post will be a team’s ranking following its trip to the Dunes.

   Two other Pac-12 entries, No. 83 Oregon State and No. 95 Utah, finished in a tie for second place, each landing on 12-over 588, seven shots behind Oregon.

   Both the Beavers and the Utes bounced back from an opening round of 12-over 300 by matching par in Tuesday’s final round with a 288.

   Boise State, out of the Mountain West Conference, couldn’t make its first-round lead hold up as the Broncos added a 5-over 293 to their opening-round 296 and finished in fourth place with a 13-over 589 total, a shot behind Oregon State and Utah.

   Two of Boise State’s Mountain West rivals, San Jose State and Fresno State, accounted for the next two spots in the team standings as the Spartans finished in fifth place with a 15-over 591 total and the Bulldogs took sixth with a 17-over 593 total.

   San Jose State bounced back from an opening-round 304 with a solid 1-under 287 to finish two shots behind Boise State. After opening with a 301, Fresno State added a 4-over 292 in Tuesday’s final round to finish two shots behind San Jose State.

   Backing up Avrit for Oregon was Greg Solhaug, a junior from Norway who finished in the group tied for 12^th place with a 2-over 146 total. Solhaug added a 1-under 71 in Tuesday’s final round to his opening round of 3-over 75.

   Aiden Krafft, a freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., finished a shot behind Solhaug in the group tied for 16th place with a 3-over 147 total. Krafft bounced back from an opening round of 5-over 77 with a solid 2-under 70.

   Nate Stamber, a senior from Portland, Ore., also opened with a 5-under 77, but bounced back by contributing a 1-under 71 to Oregon’s strong finish as he landed in the group tied for 23^rd place with a 4-over 148 total.

   Rounding out the Oregon lineup was Greyson Leach, a sophomore from Palos Verdes, Calif. who finished among the group tied for 40^th place with a 7-over 151 total. After opening with a 7-over 149, Leach matched par in Tuesday’s final round 72. The Ducks were so solid in the final round, they had the luxury of tossing Leach’s 72.

   Boise State’s Charles posted back-to-back 1-under 71s to earn runnerup honors with a 2-under 142 total, two shots behind Oregon’s Avrit.

   A couple of freshmen, Idaho’s Joe Sykes of England, and Santa Clara’s Calder Overfelt of Newport Beach, Calif., finished in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 1-under 143. After opening with a 2-over 74 in Sunday’s difficult conditions, Sykes posted a solid 3-under 69 in Tuesday’s final round. Overfelt was one of just a handful of players to get around in red figures in Sunday’s opening round with a 1-under 71 before matching par in Tuesday’s final round with a 72.

   Three players ended up in a tie for fifth place at even-par 144, including Long Beach State’s Ian Gilligan, a sophomore from Reno, Nev., SIU Edwardsville senior Presley Mackelburg, another Reno guy, and Fresno State’s Joseph Lloyd, a sophomore from Scottsdale, Ariz.

   Gilligan matched Drexel’s Mitchell for the low round of the tournament with a 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s final round after opening with a 4-over 76. Mackelburg bounced back from a 3-over 75 in Sunday’s tough conditions with a solid 3-under 69.

   Lloyd had a share of the lead after registering a solid 2-under 70 on a windy Sunday before finishing up with a 2-over 74.

   Joining Drexel’s Mitchell in the quartet tied for eighth place at 1-over 145 were Washington State’s Jordan Cantafio, a junior from Tustin, Calif., Oregon State’s Jackson Luke, a senior from Clovis, Calif., and San Jose State’s Zubair Firdaus, a sophomore from Malaysia.

   Cantafio and Luke had the same splits, each adding a 1-under 71 in Tuesday’s second round to an opening round of 2-over 74. Firdaus matched par in Tuesday’s second round with a 72 after opening with a 1-over 73.

   Backing up Mitchell for Drexel was Oscar Maxfield, a graduate student from Salt Lake City, Utah as he carded back-to-back 5-under 77s to finish in the group tied for 63^rd place with a 10-over 154 total. Maxfield transferred to Drexel from Utah.

   Drue Nicholas, a junior from Egg Harbor Township, N.J. who has been Drexel’s best player during the 2022-2023 season, had trouble negotiating the winds in the opening round, posting an 85. Nicholas, who captured one of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s major championships, the Patterson Cup, last summer, bounced back with a solid 2-under 70 in Tuesday’s final round to finish among the group tied for 73^rd place with a 155 total.

   Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa, a junior from Zimbabwe, finished alone in 98^th place with a 160 total after adding a 79 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 81.

   Rounding out the Drexel lineup was senior Liam Hart, the 2017 PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Holy Ghost Prep who finished in the group tied for 99^th place with a 161 total. Hart added a 79 in Tuesday’s final round to his opening-round 82.

   Brockton English, a sophomore from Shelby Township, Mich., made the trip to Bandon Dunes and competed as an individual for Drexel. English joined his teammate Nicholas in the group tied for 73^rd place with a 155 total as he bounced back from an opening-round 82 with a solid 1-over 73 in Tuesday’s final round.

   Interesting name popped up competing as an individual for Santa Clara in Jolo Magcalayo, a sophomore from the Philippines. Magcalayo would show up in Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour events in the spring of 2018 and 2019 to try to get ready for the big national junior events in the summer.

   Magcalayo made it to the second round of match play in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. in 2018 and finished in a tie for 15^th place in the Boys Junior PGA Championship in 2019 at the Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Conn. after opening the tournament with a scintillating 8-under 62.

   Magcalayo, like much of the field, struggled in Sunday’s windy conditions at Bandon Dunes with an 82, but bounced back with a 2-under 70 in Tuesday’s final round to finish in the group tied for 49^th place with an 8-over 152 total.