Bergstol hits the jackpot as playoff win in Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic comes with $150,000 payoff

   Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, tapped in for par on the first hole of a playoff Tuesday at Sunnybrook Golf Club and earned the biggest prize offered in a PGA Section event anywhere in the country.

   The Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic offered a top prize of $100,000 the last time it was contested two years ago. For this year’s 25^th edition, Haverford Trust Company, the event’s title partner and a title sponsor for the Philadelphia Section PGA, upped the ante with the winner earning $150,000 in the event that has traditionally been played the day after Memorial Day.

   And Bergstol, who captured the title in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship last summer at DuPont Country Club, earned the big prize.

   Bergstol made a couple of late birdies on the 14^th and 15^th holes that enabled him to catch Waynesborough Country Club pro Jeff Herb at 1-under 71, the only two sub-par rounds surrendered by a tough Sunnybrook layout.

   A par on the first hole of the playoff gave Bergstol the victory.

   Bergstol has been on quite a roll since claiming the Section championship late last summer with three birdies on the final six holes at DuPont.

   In November, Bergstol was the runnerup for the second year in a row in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   Bergstol failed to survive the 36-hole cut in the PGA Professional Championship at Twin Warriors and Santa Ana Golf Clubs in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. earlier this spring, but played solid with a 4-over 148 total.

   Bergstol opened his round at Sunnybrook with a birdie at the first hole, but gave a shot back with a bogey at five. After bouncing back with a birdie at the sixth hole, Bergstol made bogeys at eight and 12 to fall back to 1-over for his round. But the two birdies on his way to the clubhouse enabled him to catch Herb.

   “I look forward to this event every year,” Bergstol told the Philadelphia Section PGA website.

   Herb played much earlier in the day and caught fire late in his round to post a 1-under total that nearly held up for the victory.

   Herb opened his round with a bogey at the first hole before making a birdie at three. Herb then briefly got on the bogey train with bogeys at the ninth, 11^th and 12^th holes. But Herb finished with a flourish with three straight birdies at the 14^th, 15^th and 16^th holes before a closing birdie at the last got him in the house at 1-under.

   Berkshire Country Club assistant pro Andrew Turner matched with a 72 to finish alone in third place, a shot out of the playoff.

   Heading a group of six players tied for fourth place at 1-over 73 was Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, who played the weekend, as in last weekend, in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, a PGA Tour Champions major held at the new PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas.

   McNabb made a splash in Thursday’s opening round at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco when he aced the 161-yard eighth hole, but he struggled otherwise with a 78. But McNabb bounced back with a sparkling 5-under 67 in Friday’s second round to make the cut.

   McNabb finished up with rounds of 75 Saturday and 76 Sunday to end up in a tie for 63^rd place with an 8-over 296 total.

   Also in the group at 1-over at Sunnybrook were Greg Matthews of Pennsauken Country Club, Rusty Harbold, out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, Michael Little of Clubhouse 54, Mike Ladden of Whitford Country Club and Union League Liberty Hill instructor Billy Stewart.

   Stewart had a solid showing in the PGA Professional Championship earlier this spring at Santa Ana and Twin Warriors, surviving two cuts and finishing in a tie for 27^th place with an even-par 288 total.

   Nobody had a stronger showing in the National Club Pro in New Mexico than Rolling Green Golf Club’s director of instruction Braden Shattuck, who was one of six more players tied for 10^th place in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic with a 2-over 74.

   Shattuck, the reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Philadelphia Section PGA Player of the Year, became just the second Philadelphia Section representative to win the PGA Professional Championship when he made a 12-foot putt for par on the 72^nd hole that gave him a 9-under 279 total.

   The victory earned him a $60,000 first-place check and a berth in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y. After struggling to a 79 in the opening round at Oak Hill’s tough East Course, Shattuck bounced back with a 73 in the second round, but missed the cut with his 12-over 152 total.

   One of the players Shattuck beat at Santa Ana and Twin Warriors, though, gave club pros everywhere a huge kick when Michael Block, the head pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif., finished in a tie for 15^th place with that spectacular slam-dunk hole-in-one on the Oak Hill East Course’s 15^th hole while paired with Rory McIlroy in the final round.

   Joining Shattuck in the group tied for 10^th place at 2-over were Green Valley Country Club’s John Cooper, the ageless George Forster out of Radnor Valley Country Club pro shop, Sandy Run Country Club’s Trevor Bensel, Alex Willey of Manufacturers Golf & Country Club and Dustin McCormick of Glen Brook Golf Club.

   McNabb’s 73 earned him top honors in the Senior Division with Cooper and Forster tied for second place, a shot behind McNabb.

   Spring-Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz, the reigning Robert “Skee” Riegel Player of the Year, also represented the Philadelphia Section in the Senior PGA Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, but failed to make the cut with a pair of 79s for a 158 total.

   Steinmetz recorded a 4-over 76 at Sunnybrook to finish among a large group tied for 24^th place in the overall Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic scoring and in a tie for seventh place in the Senior Division.

   Joanna Coe, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, carded an 83 to capture top honors in the Women’s Division.

   Coe survived two cuts and played four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship at Santa Ana and Twin Warriors, finishing in a tie for 49^th place with a 3-over 291 total. Coe will represent the Philadelphia Section when she plays in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour which tees off June 22^nd at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

   Beatrice Smith of Gulph Mills Golf Club was the runnerup in the Women’s Division at Sunnybrook with a 90.

   Steve Wetherill Jr. captured the Amateur Division with a 1-over 73. Frank Natale was the runnerup with a 5-over 78.

 

 

 

 

 

Georgia Tech, Florida will play for a national championship in Final Match at Grayhawk

   Georgia Tech’s Ross Steelman could have hung his head after an individual national championship slipped away in the final round of 72 holes of stroke play Monday at Grayhawk Golf Club’s Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   But the main goal for Steelman, a senior from Columbia, Mo. and No. 21 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, wasn’t an individual national championship. Steelman’s main goal was a national championship for Georgia Tech and to fill in the only blank space in the glittering resume of the Yellow Jackets’ head coach, Bruce Heppler, who is in his 28^th season at the helm in Atlanta.

   So, Steelman put the disappointment of Monday behind him and went to work Tuesday. When he finished off a tense 1-up victory over North Carolina’s Peter Fountain, a junior from Raleigh, N.C., that gave Georgia Tech a 3-2 semifinal victory, Steelman had completed a 2-0 day in match play and sent the Yellow Jackets into Wednesday’s Final Match in the NCAA Championship.

   Atlantic Coast Conference champion Georgia Tech, No. 11 in the latest Golfstat rankings, will take on Southeastern Conference champion Florida, ranked ninth, for the national championship after the Gators had pulled out an equally dramatic 3-2 victory over their cross-state rival Florida State, one of three ACC teams among the four semifinalists.

   The Golf Channel couldn’t have asked for two better semifinal matchups with Georgia Tech, which won its 19^th ACC crown earlier this spring, taking on ACC rival North Carolina, the highest-ranked team left in the field at No. 2, and Florida-Florida State, the biggest in-state rivalry – no matter the sport -- this side of Auburn-Alabama.

   North Carolina had emerged from 72 holes of qualifying for match play over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Raptor Course layout with the top seed and moved into the semifinals with a 3-1 victory over No. 4 Arizona State, a Pac-12 power.

   It wasn’t the easiest of draws for the Tar Heels as Arizona State was playing just a few miles from its campus and had reached the Final Match at Grayhawk a year ago before falling to Texas.

   Steelman, meanwhile, had rolled to a 6 and 5 decision over Pepperdine’s William Mouw, a senior from Chino, Calif. and No. 20 in the WAGR, to help Georgia Tech reached the semifinals with a 3-2 victory over the Waves.

   Mouw will always be synonymous with the most successful era in the history of Pepperdine golf. He was a freshman on the 2019-2020 team that was ranked No. 1 when a novel coronavirus arrived and led to the season’s premature end. He was a member of the team that came back a year later and won a national championship.

   He was there last year when the Waves reached the semifinals at Grayhawk in defense of their national title. And he was there when Pepperdine earned a spot in the match-play bracket for the third straight spring over the Memorial Day weekend.

   Georgia Tech, though, advanced with a hard-fought victory when Hiroshi Tai, a freshman from Singapore, edged Roberto Nieves, a graduate student from Miami, Fla., on the 19^th hole.

   Nieves was a standout at Delaware before deciding to take the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to players who lost the spring of 2020 to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic at Pepperdine.

   North Carolina’s Dylan Menante, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 14 in the WAGR, put the first point on the board in the Tar Heels’ semifinal showdown with Georgia Tech with a 6 and 5 victory over the Yellow Jackets’ Christo Lamprecht, a junior from South Africa and No. 8 in the WAGR.

   Georgia Tech, however, got two big points from Bentley Forrester, a redshirt senior from Gainesville, Ga. and No. 53 in the WAGR, and Connor Howe, a senior from Ogden, Utah and No. 50 in the WAGR.

   Both eased to 4 and 2 victories, Bentley defeating Ryan Burnett, a fifth-year player from Lafayette, Calif. and No. 29 in the WAGR, and Howe knocking off Austin Greaser, a senior from Vandalia, Ohio who was a beaten finalist in the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club two summers ago.

   When Tai dropped a 1-up decision to Davis Ford, a sophomore from Peachtree Corners, Ga. and No. 4 in the WAGR, it was up to Steelman.

   Steelman held a 1-up lead on Fountain going to the 16^th tee at the Raptor Course. A day earlier Steelman’s bogey, bogey, bogey finish on the final three holes had cost him the NCAA’s individual crown.

   This time, though, Steelman was rock steady. He matched Fountain’s par on the par-3 16^th hole and then matched Fountain’s birdie on the short, par-4 17^th to maintain his 1-up edge going to the final hole.

   When Steelman stuck his approach at the long, par-4 18^th hole to two feet, it was over.

   Georgia Tech has been the runnerup four times in the old stroke-play format for the NCAA Championship in 1993, 2000, 2002 and 2005, the last three of those under Heppler. The deepest run in match play for the Yellow Jackets was a decade ago when they lost to Alabama in the 2013 semifinals.

   J.C. Deacon, in his ninth season as the head coach at Florida, didn’t hesitate to put Ricky Castillo in the anchor position for both of the Gators’ matches Tuesday.

   The senior from Yorba Linda, Calif. and No. 26 in the WAGR never backs down from a challenge and went 4-0 for captain Nathaniel Crosby’s United States team the pressure cooker of a Walker Cup Match at iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. two springs ago.

   And Castillo didn’t let down Deacon and the Gators.

   In the morning, Castillo stared down Virginia’s freshman phenom Ben James, No. 7 in the WAGR and coming off a sixth-place finish in the NCAA Championship’s individual chase, Castillo claiming a 4 and 2 victory in the Gators’ 3-2 victory over the 16^th-ranked Cavaliers.

   Things didn’t look good in Florida’s semifinal match with No. 7 Florida State.

   The Seminoles had put two points on the board with Jack Bigham, a freshman from England, rolling to a 6 and 5 verdict over Yuxin Lin, a senior from China and No. 30 in the WAGR, and Frederik Kjettrup, a junior from Denmark and No. 27 in the WAGR, claiming a 3 and 1 decision over Matthew Kress, a redshirt freshman from Saratoga, Calif.

   But freshly-minted NCAA individual champion Fred Biondi, a senior from Brazil and No. 16 in the WAGR, pulled out a 1-up victory over Cole Anderson, a redshirt junior from Camden, Maine, and John DuBois, a senior from Windermere, Fla., edged Luke Clanton, the Seminoles’ talented freshman from Hialeah, Fla, 1-up, to enable Florida to draw even.

   Castillo, meanwhile, had fallen 2-down with three holes to go against Florida State’s Brett Roberts, a junior from Coral Springs, Fla. and No. 74 in the WAGR. Earlier in the day, Roberts had claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Illinois’ Piercen Hunt, a junior from Hartland, Wis., to help the Seminoles reach the semifinals with a 3-2 victory over the Big Ten champion.

   Castillo cut his deficit in half with a win at the par-3 16^th hole then fearlessly lashed a 3-wood onto the green at the 330-ish-yard par-4 17^th. A two-putt birdie tied the match and that’s the way it stayed until the 21^st hole, the par-4 10^th hole at the Raptor Course.

   Castillo got his approach inside Roberts and on the same line. Roberts’ birdie bid slid just by on the left, but Castillo had seen the line and, like any really good player who is sure he’s got the line, Castillo buried his 20-footer for birdie to send the Gators to the Final Match.

   Quarterfinal/semifinal Tuesday in the NCAA Championship had delivered the drama, just as it had a week earlier in the women’s championship. Only two are left now and a national champion will be crowned in the desert Wednesday.

 

 

 

North Carolina earns top seed, leads ACC charge into match play in NCAA Championship at Grayhawk

   When the smoke finally cleared from a long Memorial Day of golf in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., there was one inescapable conclusion: The Atlantic Coast Conference was the best conference in America in the wraparound 2022-2023 season.

   Not the powerful Southeastern Conference, although you can still make a pretty strong case that the SEC is still the deepest group. Not the Pac-12. Not the Big 12, which has produced several recent NCAA champions, including Texas a year ago.

   In the end, the ACC’s North Carolina, No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, closed with a sparkling 7-under-par 273 Monday over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Raptor Course at Grayhawk and finished as the top seed for match play with a 6-under 1,114 total.

   The Tar Heels are one of four ACC teams in the eight-team match-play bracket, which will be teeing off as I put this post together. That’s right, fully half of the match-play field comes from the ACC and that’s a pretty impressive feat.

   The ACC, which has already produced an NCAA women’s champion in Wake Forest last week, has always been a strong golf group, but this will have to do go down as a banner year for the conference.

   There will be a lot written and said about who will not be teeing it up in match play Tuesday, particularly SEC power Vanderbilt, which came to Grayhawk as the No. 1 team in the country and left empty-handed. The Commodores just never got it going in the desert, finishing in a tie for 11^th place with SEC rival Alabama at 21-over 1,141.

   I’m sure there’s no shortage of disappointment for No. 6 Stanford, either, as the Pac-12 champion lost on the second hole of a playoff with conference rival and fourth-ranked Arizona State for the final spot in the match-play bracket.

   They had engaged in a couple of wild shootouts in both the Pac-12 Championship and again at the Las Vergas Regional. It was hard to imagine that the Sun Devils, playing just a few miles from their campus, and the Cardinal would be battling it out just to get into match play, but that was the deal after they finished in a tie for eighth place at 12-over 1,132.

   The day wasn’t a total loss for the SEC, though, as conference champion Florida, ranked ninth, got a share of second place in the team standings with Big Ten champion Illinois, No. 3 in the country, at 2-under 1,118 and produced an individual national champion in Fred Biondi, a senior from Brazil and No. 16 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

   The determined Gators got it in under par in each of the last three rounds at Grayhawk, closing with a 1-under 279 after back-to-back 2-under 278s in the second and third rounds.

   And while Biondi benefited from a bit of a collapse from Georgia Tech’s Ross Steelman, a senior from Columbia, Mo. and No. 21 in the WAGR, Biondi’s sparkling final round of 3-under 67 was his fourth round in the 60s on a Raptor Course that was not yielding a whole lot of low numbers.

   After an early burst that included birdies at the second, fourth and sixth holes, Biondi made a double bogey at the seventh hole. He bounced back with birdies at the ninth and 10^th holes, dropped a shot with a bogey at 12, but then made a birdie at 14 to get it to 7-under.

   Biondi then grinded out four pars on the Raptor Course’s tough closing stretch, his final-round 67 giving him a 7-under 273 total. He is Florida’s third NCAA individual champion, its first since Nick Gilliam in 2001.

   Steelman had led the individual race ever since opening with a sizzling 6-under 64, an effort nobody came close to matching. He finally stumbled on his way to the house, making bogeys at the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th holes for a final round of 3-over 73 that left Steelman in a tie for second place in the individual standings with Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan, a sophomore from Dacula, Ga., at 6-under 274, a shot behind Biondi.

   But give Steelman credit. He played a huge part in getting a talented Georgia Tech bunch – the Yellow Jackets were the champions of the ACC, don’t forget – into the match-play bracket.

   Georgia Tech closed with a solid 4-over 284 to share fifth place in the team standings with ACC rival and seventh-ranked Florida State, each landing on 6-over 1,126, six shots behind West Coast Conference power and eighth-ranked Pepperdine.

   Buchanan closed with a sparkling 3-under 67 that got him a share of second place in the individual standings with Steelman at 6-under and got the Fighting Illini across the finish line.

   Illinois held a three-shot lead over Pepperdine in the team standings going into the final round before closing with a 4-over 284 that enabled it to get a share of second place with Florida at 2-under 1,118.

   Illinois will get Florida State in the quarterfinals as the Seminoles matched ACC rival North Carolina for the low team round of the day with their 7-under 273 to get a share of fifth place with Georgia Tech at 6-over 1,126.

   Pepperdine closed with a 3-over 283 to finish in fourth place with an even-par 1,120 total and earn a spot in the match-play bracket for the third straight year. The Waves get Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals.

   No. 16 Virginia was the fourth ACC team to earn a spot in the match-play bracket. The Cavaliers hung around all weekend, then closed with a solid 3-under 277 to finish in seventh place with an 11-over 1,131 total. A lot of big names in college golf left town Monday night. Virginia is still in the desert, still competing.

   Then there was a battle for the final spot in the match-play bracket between the two Pac-12 powers, Arizona State and Stanford.

   Stanford’s Barclay Brown, a senior from England and No. 59, arrived at the 18^th green with a birdie look that would have given the Cardinal eighth place, but somehow left the slick downhill putt short.

   When Arizona State sophomore Preston Summerhays of the golfing Summerhays family of Scottsdale and No. 28 in the WAGR knocked in a birdie putt on the Raptor Course’s 14^th hole, the second hole of the playoff, it was the Sun Devils, who fell to Texas in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match a year ago at Grayhawk, beating out Stanford for the eighth and final spot in the match-play bracket.

   Top-seeded North Carolina had to gulp hard when it realized it was going to have face either Arizona State or Stanford in the quarterfinals. But there are no easy roads to a national championship. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re one of the eight teams still standing in the NCAA Championship’s match-play bracket, you’ve had a great season, you’re an elite team in Division I college golf.

   North Carolina was led by Dylan Menante, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 14 in the WAGR who finished in a tie for fourth place in the individual standings with Stanford’s Brown at 5-under 275 after matching par in the final round.

   Menante was in the lineup for Pepperdine when the Waves reached the semifinals a year ago at Grayhawk. He reached the semifinals of last summer’s U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. before falling to eventual champion Sam Bennett. You could certainly argue that Menante was the missing piece for the Tar Heels.

   North Carolina’s final-round push was sparked by Austin Greaser, a senior from Vandalia, Ohio who matched the low round of the day Monday, a sizzling 4-under 66 that left him among the group tied for 11^th place with an even-par 280.

   Greaser, who lost in the U.S. Amateur final at Oakmont Country Club to James Piot in the summer of 2021, jump-started his round by finding the bottom of the cup off the tee at the par-3 fifth hole for a hole-in-one.

   David Ford, a sophomore from Peachtree Corners, Ga. and No. 4 the WAGR, delivered a 2-under 68 in the final round to finish in the group tied for 22^nd place for the Tar Heels with a 2-over 282 total.

   Rounding out the North Carolina lineup were Ryan Burnett, a fifth-year player from Lafayette, Calif. and No. 29 in the WAGR, and Peter Fountain, a junior from Raleigh, N.C., both of whom finished in the group tied for 36^th place at 5-over 285. Burnett closed with a solid 1-under 69 while Fountain finished up with a 2-over 72.

   Stanford’s Brown closed with a 1-under 69 to get his share of fourth place with North Carolina’s Menante at 5-under 275.

   Virginia’s talented freshman, Ben James of Milford, Conn. and No. 7 in the WAGR, matched the low round of the day in Monday’s final round with a 4-under 66 to finish alone in sixth place with a 4-under 276 total.

   A couple of Illinois’ veteran fifth-year players, Adrien Dumont de Chassart of Belgium and No. 11 in the WAGR and Tommy Kuhl of Morton, Ill. and No. 56 in the WAGR, joined their teammate Buchanan to give the Fighting Illini three top-10 finishers as they landed in the quartet tied for seventh place at 1-under 279.

   Dumont de Chassart closed with a 3-over 73 while Kuhl finished up with a solid 1-over 71.

   Dumont de Chassart and Kuhl were joined at 1-under by Pepperdine’s Sam Choi, a graduate student from Anaheim, Calif. and No. 43 in the WAGR and Florida State’s Brett Roberts, a junior from Coral Springs, Fla. and No. 24 in the WAGR.

   Choi matched par in the final round with a 70 while Roberts surged up the leaderboard with a sparkling 3-under 67.

   It was a frustrating day for No. 12 Auburn, out of the SEC, as the Tigers closed with a 2-over 282 to finish alone in 10^th place with a 21-over 1,138 total, six shots out of the playoff between Arizona State and Stanford for the final spot in the match-play bracket.

   Junior Carson Bacha, the PIAA Class AAA champion in 2019 as a senior at Central York and No. 86 in the WAGR, had a second straight strong showing at Grayhawk. Bacha closed with his worst round of the weekend, a 4-over 74 that left him in the group tied for 48^th place with a 7-over 287 total.

   Another Pennsylvania scholastic champion, Stanford sixth-year player Nate Menon, who claimed the Class AA crown in 2015 as a junior at Wyomissing, contributed a counting 1-over 71 to the Cardinal’s ultimately failed bid for the final spot in the match-play bracket as he finished in a tie for 77^th place with a 296 total.

   Ohio State fifth-year player Neal Shipley, who captured the Pennsylvania Amateur crown last summer at Llanerch Country Club, began the day just four shots out of the individual lead after his 3-under 67 earned the Buckeyes a spot in a playoff with Texas Tech for 15^th place in the team standings, the cutoff for a team to compete in Monday’s final round.

   Ohio State prevailed in the playoff, but Shipley, a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s PIAA Class AAA championship team as a senior in 2018, struggled in the final round. Shipley, who used his final season of eligibility at Ohio State after a standout career at James Madison, closed with a 79 to finish in the group tied for 29^th place with a 4-over 284 total.

 

 

 

 

 

Big Ten champion Illinois will take three-shot lead into final round of stroke play in NCAA Championship at Grayhawk

   With three players in the top eight in the individual standings, Big Ten champion Illinois remained atop the team leaderboard Sunday after three rounds of stroke-play qualifying for match play in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   The Fighting Illini, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, put together a solid third round of 4-under-par 276 over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Raptor Course layout at Grayhawk and will take a 6-under 834 total and a three-shot lead over West Coast Conference power Pepperdine, ranked eighth, into the Memorial Day windup of qualifying for match play.

   Finishing first would be nice, but three solid rounds has Illinois, under veteran head coach Mike Small, in good position to achieve the ultimate goal: Be one of the top eight teams at the end of the day Monday that qualify for match play in the battle for a national championship.

   The Golf Channel cameras will be rolling Monday as an individual NCAA champion is crowned and the eight match-play quarterfinalists are determined. Match play will get under way Tuesday morning.

   Georgia Tech’s Ross Steelman, a senior from Columbia, Mo. and No. 21 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), has the inside track on that individual title as he expanded his lead to four shots going into Monday’s final round.

   Steelman, who took control of the individual chase when he blitzed the Raptor Course layout with an 8-under 64 in Friday’s opening round, carded a solid 2-under 68 in Sunday’s third round that left him with a 9-under 201 total.

   Steelman’s closest pursuers were Ohio State graduate student Neal Shipley, the reigning Pennsylvania Amateur champion, and North Carolina’s Dylan Menante, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 14 in the WAGR, both of whom were at 5-under 205, four shots behind Steelman.

   Illinois was led by Tommy Kuhl, a fifth-year player from Morton, Ill. and No. 56 in the WAGR who fired a sparkling 3-under 67 that left him among a group of five players tied for eighth place in the individual standings at 2-under 208.

   Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan, a sophomore from Dacula, Ill., carded his second straight 2-under 68 and was alone in seventh place with a 3-under 207 total.

   Adrien Dumont de Chassart, a fifth-year player from Belgium and No. 11 in the WAGR, matched par in Sunday’s third round with a 70 after back-to-back 2-under 68s in the first two rounds and was one of three players tied for fourth place in the individual standings at 4-under 206.

   Pepperdine put together the best team round of the weekend, a sizzling 11-under 269, to move into second place with a 3-under 837 total.

   The Waves have a pretty good track record at Grayhawk having won the national championship in the Arizona desert two years ago and making it to the semifinals in defense of that title a year ago.

   Southeastern Conference champion Florida, ranked ninth, was another two shots behind Pepperdine in third place with a 1-under 839 total after the Gators recorded a solid 2-under 278 in Sunday’s third round.

   Atlantic Coast Conference power North Carolina, the No. 2 team in the country, had its best round of the weekend, a 5-under 275 that left it in fourth place with a 1-over 841 total.

   The Tar Heels were led by Menante, who was in the Pepperdine lineup a year ago at Grayhawk before coming east to Tobacco Road. Menante registered a 3-under 67 that left him a tie for second place in the individual standings with Ohio State’s Shipley at 5-under.

   North Carolina’s ACC rival, conference champion Georgia Tech, ranked 11^th, was a shot behind the Tar Heels in fifth place with a 2-over 842 total after carding a 4-under 276 behind Steelman, the individual leader.

   The tournament within the tournament Monday will be the battle to finish among the top eight who will battle it out for the national championship and the next group of teams behind Georgia Tech in the team standings will be feeling the heat.

   Pac-12 rivals Stanford, the conference champion ranked No. 6, and No. 4 Arizona State were sitting in sixth and seventh place, respectively.

   The two teams hooked up in an incredible shootout in the Las Vegas Regional at Bear’s Best Las Vegas with Arizona State claiming the regional title with a 59-under total, two shots ahead of Stanford, which was 57-under.

   After a sluggish first two rounds, Stanford put together a solid 4-under 276 in Sunday’s third round to move into sixth place, eight shots behind Georgia Tech with a 10-over 850 total.

   Arizona State, which fell to Texas in the Final Match at Grayhawk a year ago, posted a solid 1-under 279 and was a shot behind the Cardinal in seventh place with an 11-over 851 total.

   There’s a lot of talent lined up right behind Stanford and Arizona State in what figures to be a contentious battle for the eight spots in the match-play bracket, including the No. 1 team in the country, SEC runnerup Vanderbilt, and No. 7 Florida State, another ACC entry, as those two formidable teams enter Monday’s final round in a tie for eighth place at 13-over 853, two shots behind the Sun Devils.

   It would have seemed almost unthinkable that Vanderbilt would not be one of the eight teams in the match-play bracket, but the Commodores are very much on the bubble after carding a 3-over 283 in Sunday’s third round. Florida State recorded a 2-over 282 to get its share of eighth place.

   Another ACC entry, No. 10 Virginia, was a shot behind Vanderbilt and Florida State at 14-over 854 as the Cavaliers rounded out the top 10 in the team standings in 10^th place after registering a 3-over 283 in Sunday’s third round.

   As I wrap this post up, No. 23 Ohio State, out of the Big Ten, and Big 12 power Texas Tech, ranked fifth, will be preparing for a playoff to determine the final team to survive the 54-hole cut after they both landed on 26-over 866.

   Ohio State’s Shipley, a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s 2018 PIAA Class AAA championship team, had rattled off three straight birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth holes at the Raptor Course – Shipley had started off the 10^th tee -- to surge into contention in the individual chase and move the Buckeyes a shot ahead of Texas Tech in the battle to make the 54-hole team cut.

   But Shipley closed with a bogey at his final hole, the ninth, and Ohio State’s 4-over 284 left it in a tie for 15^th place with the Red Raiders, who carded a 9-over 289.

   Shipley was a standout at James Madison and decided to take the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to make up for the spring of 2020 lost to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic at Ohio State. He ended up with a sparkling 3-under 67 in Sunday’s third round to join North Carolina’s Menate in the tie for second place at 5-under, four shots behind Steelman.

   Backing up the top three for Illinois was another fifth-year player and Dumont de Chassart’s fellow Belgian, Matthis Besard, who posted a solid 1-over 71 that left him in the group tied for 44^th place with a 5-over 215 total.

   Rounding out the Illinois lineup was Piercen Hunt, a junior from Hartland, Wis. who carded a 3-over 73 and was among the group tied for 106^th place with a 222 total through three rounds.

   Joining Illinois’ Dumont de Chassart in the trio tied for fourth place in the individual standings at 4-under were Stanford’s Barclay Brown, a junior from England and No. 59 in the WAGR, and Florida’s Fred Biondi, a senior from Brazil and No. 16 in the WAGR.

   Brown carded a solid 3-under 67 to spark the team rebound by the Cardinal. Biondi’s 1-under 69 was his third round in the 60s for the weekend.

   Joining Illinois’ Kuhl in the quintet tied for eighth place at 2-under was a group headed by two of the country’s most talented freshmen, Alabama’s Nick Dunlap of Huntsville, Ala. who is No. 36 in the WAGR, and Virginia’s Ben James of Milford, Conn., who is No. 7 in the WAGR.

   Dunlap ripped off a sizzling 4-under 66, the best individual round of the day, while James posted a solid 1-under 69.

   Rounding out the group at 2-under were Pepperdine’s Luke Gifford, a graduate student from Boca Raton, Fla., and Texas A&M’s Daniel Rodrigues, a junior from Portugal.

   Gifford, who is taking his COVID year at Pepperdine after a standout career at South Florida, recorded a sparkling 3-under 67 in Sunday’s third round while Rodrigues posted a 2-over 72.

   No. 12 Auburn, out of the SEC, is still very much in the hunt for one of the eight berths in the match-play bracket as the Tigers are two shots behind Virginia in 11^th place with a 16-over 856 total after a 2-over 282 in Sunday’s third round.

   Auburn continues to be led by junior Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York and No. 86 in the WAGR. Bacha registered a solid 3-over 73 in Sunday’s third  round and was in the group tied for 28^th place in the individual standings at 3-over 213.

   Another Pennsylvania high school champion, Stanford sixth-year player Nate Menon, who claimed the Class AA crown in 2015 as a junior at Wyomissing, was in the group tied for 122^nd place at 225 following a second straight 4-over 74 that the Cardinal were able to throw out.

   Chattanooga sophomore Garrett Engle, a scholastic standout at Central Dauphin, carded a solid 1-over 71 and was in the group tied for 74^th place at 9-over 219.

   Not sure what the cutoff was to return for the final round of individual competition, but the No. 41 Moccasins, out of the Southern Conference, missed the cut in the team competition, landing in a tie for 23^rd place with BYU at 39-over 879.

 

Mecca opens GAP's major season by rallying to claim Middle-Amateur crown by a shot

   The way David Mecca looked at it, he wasn’t just representing Glen Oak Country Club in Clarks Summit, he was carrying the banner for the entire Anthracite Golf Association (AGA).

   There’s plenty of good golf played in Northeastern Pennsylvania and Mecca hammered that point home by capturing the first major championship on the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 2023 calendar, grinding out a one-shot victory in the 40^th Middle-Amateur Championship, presented by NJM Insurance, which wrapped up Tuesday at Old York Road Country Club in Spring House.

   A birdie burst in the middle of Tuesday’s second round enabled Mecca, a 30-year-old Clarks Summit resident, to post the only round under par for the tournament, a 1-under-par 70, over a 6,632-yard, par-71 Old York Road layout that played really tough for a talented group of the region’s top mid-ams.

   Combined with a 3-over 74 in Monday’s opening round, Mecca’s closing kick gave him a 2-over 144 total that was a shot better than a trio of players who were his closest pursuers.

   “It’s surreal,” Mecca told the GAP website. “It’s awesome for finally an AGA guy winning. I’m really happy with how I played today. (Monday), I didn’t strike it all that great. I just got around the course.

   “Today, I had my ‘A’ game. I putted really well. I hit the ball well with the exception of like one shot.”

   That would be his bladed approach at the par-4 second hole that resulted in a double bogey. Fortunately, there was still a lot of golf to be played and Mecca quickly found his groove.

   Another AGA guy, Glenmaura National Golf Club’s John Barone, a fixture in head coach Brian Quinn’s Temple lineup not all that long ago, appeared to be in control of the championship.

   Mecca, who played collegiately at Hofstra, kept the pressure on the 27-year-old Barone with four birdies over a seven-hole stretch.

   Mecca’s 5-wood shot into the 574-yard, par-5 fourth hole left him with a chip from 50 feet. He knocked it to 10 feet and converted the birdie try.

   Mecca used the 5-wood off the tee at the 330-yard, par-4 eighth hole and needed just a sand wedge from 40 yards to stop the ball four feet from the hole for another birdie. Mecca was just in front of the green in two at the 553-yard, par-5 ninth hole, chipped it to six feet and buried the birdie putt.

   Mecca then rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt at the 408-yard, par-4 10^th hole to get it 1-over for the championship.

   When Barone rolled in a 50-foot birdie bomb on the 149-yard, par-3 14^th hole, he still looked like a winner as his lead over Mecca was two shots.

   But three straight bogeys by Barone opened the door for Mecca and he made the most of the opportunity, even overcoming a three-putt bogey at the 17^th hole.

   Barone had opened with a solid 1-over 73 in Monday’s first round. His late stumble left Barone with a 2-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round and a 3-over 145 total.

   Barone shared second place at 3-over with Green Valley Country Club’s Ben Feld, the Drexel head golf coach and 2017 GAP Middle-Amateur champion, and Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Stewart Rickenbach.

   Feld added a 2-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 72 to get his share of second place. Richenbach had a share of the lead going into Tuesday’s final round after he matched par in the opening round with a 71. He backed off a little in the second round with a 3-over 74 to join Barone and Feld in the tie for second place at 3-over.

   Veteran mid-am Brian Gillespie of St. Davids Golf Club closed with a second straight 2-over 73 to finish alone in fifth place with a 4-over 146 total.

   Zak Drescher of Bent Creek Country Club was another shot behind Gillespie in sixth place at 5-over 147 as he closed with a solid 1-over 72 after opening with a 4-over 75.

   The 1912 Club’s Scott McNeil, a two-time GAP Middle-Amateur Championship winner in 2015 and again in 2021, finished up with a 2-over 73-after opening with a 4-over 75 as he ended up in seventh place with a 6-over 148 total that left him a shot behind Drescher.

   Rounding out the top 10 was a quartet of players tied for eighth place, each landing on 7-over 149, including Daniel Rudhershausen of Bidermann Golf Club, Joseph Tigani of Fieldstone Golf Club, Nathan Fry of Green Pond Country Club and Jacoby Chappa of Maple Dale Country Club.

   Rudershausen and Tigani had the same splits, each adding a 3-over 74 in Tuesday’s second round to an opening-round 75. Fry and Chappa also had identical splits as each opened with a 2-over 73 before closing with a 5-over 76.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Ten champion Illinois surges to top of leaderboard after two rounds of NCAA Championship at Grayhawk

   A veteran Illinois team, the Big Ten champion, had the best round of the day, a 7-under-par 273 Saturday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., to surge to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway point of stroke-play qualifying for match play in the NCAA Championship.

   Led by Adrien Dumont de Chassart, the Fighting Illini’s fifth-year player from Belgium and No. 11 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Illinois, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, was the only team under par after the first two rounds at 2-under 558. Illinois had opened with a 5-over 285 in Friday’s first round.

   Dumont de Chassart carded his second straight 2-under 68 over Grayhawk’s 7,289-yard, par-70 Raptor Course to get a share of second place with Texas A&M’s Daniel Rodrigues, a junior from Portugal, in the individual standings at 4-under 136.

   That left them three shots behind individual leader Ross Steelman, a senior at Georgia Tech from Columbia, Mo. and No. 21 in the WAGR who added a 1-under 69 to his sizzling opening-round 64 for a 7-under 133 total.

   The NCAA’s individual champion will be crowned on a Memorial Day Monday.

   The team field will be cut in half from 30 teams to 15 teams following Sunday’s third round. The top eight teams at the end of four rounds of qualifying Monday will tee off in match play beginning Tuesday morning.

   Southeastern Conference champion Florida, ranked ninth, also had a solid second round with a 2-under 278 to move into second place in the team standings with a 1-over 561 total. Florida had opened with a 3-over 283.

   Florida was led by Fred Biondi, a senior from Brazil and No. 16 in the WAGR who added a 2-under 68 to his opening-round 69 and was alone in fourth place in the individual standings with a 3-under 137 total that left him a shot behind Dumont de Chassart and Rodrigues.

   Atlantic Coast Conference champion Georgia Tech, behind Steelman, the individual leader, was tied for third place with conference rival North Carolina, each sitting at 6-over 566, five shots behind Florida.

   The No. 11 Yellow Jackets had grabbed the individual lead after matching par in the opening round with a 280. They added a 6-over 286 in Saturday’s second round. The No. 2 Tar Heels added a 4-over 284 to their opening-round of 2-over 282.

   West Coast Conference power Pepperdine, ranked eighth, added a 7-over 287 to its opening round of 1-over 281 and was alone in fifth place with an 8-over 568 total, two shots behind Georgia Tech and North Carolina.

   Vanderbilt, the No. 1 team in the country, added an 8-over 288 to its opening round of 2-over 282 that left it two shots behind Pepperdine in sixth place with a 10-over 570 total.

   The Commodores, the runnerup to Florida in the SEC’s match-play final at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course on Saint Simons Island, Ga., and Pepperdine reached the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk a year ago.

   Two more ACC entries, No. 7 Florida State and No16 Virginia, were tied for seventh place, a shot behind Vanderbilt at 11-over 571.

   The Seminoles added a 7-over 284 to their opening round of 7-over 287 while the Cavaliers moved up the team leaderboard with a solid 1-over 281 after they had opened with a 10-over 290.

   Pac-12 Conference power Arizona State, playing close to home, made its move with a 1-over 281 landing the No. 4 Sun Devils in a tie for ninth place with SEC power Alabama at 12-over 572. Arizona State had opened with an 11-over 291.

   The No. 15 Crimson Tide also had a solid second round with a 2-over 282 after opening with a 10-over 290.

   Backing up Dumont de Chassart for Illinois was Jackson Buchanan, a sophomore from Dacula, Ga. who matched the 2-under 68 recorded by Dumont de Chassart and was one of five players tied for eighth place in the individual chase at 1-under 139 total.

   Tommy Kuhl, a fifth-year player from Morton, Ill. and No. 56 in the WAGR, added a 1-under 69 to his opening-round 72, giving the Fighting Illini a third player inside the top 20 as he was in the group tied for 19^th place at 1-over 141.

   Another fifth-year Belgian, Matthis Besard, gave the Fighting Illini a third 2-under 68 in Saturday’s third round that left him in the group tied for 42^nd place at 4-over 144. Bessard had opened with a 6-over 76.

   Rounding out the Illinois lineup was Piercen Hunt, a junior from Hartland, Wis. who added a 5-over 75 to his opening-round 74 and was in the group tied for 108^th place at 9-over 149.

   Texas A&M’s Rodrigues had the best round of the day, a sparkling 4-under 66, to get his share of second place with Dumont de Chassart at 4-under 136. Rodrigues had matched par in the opening round with a 70.

   Ohio State’s Neal Shipley, winner of last summer’s Pennsylvania Amateur at Llanerch Country Club, headed a trio of players tied for fifth place in the individual standings at 2-under 138, a shot behind Florida’s Biondi.

   Shipley, a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s PIAA Class AAA championship team in 2018, is a fifth-year player for the Buckeyes after a standout career at James Madison. He carded a solid 2-under 68 in Saturday’s second round after matching par in the opening round with a 70.

   Shipley was joined at 2-under by North Carolina’s Dylan Menante, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 14 in the WAGR, and New Mexico’s Matthew Watkins, a junior from Rockwall, Texas.

   Menante, who transferred to Chapel Hill after helping Pepperdine reach the semifinals at Grayhawk last spring, matched par in Saturday’s second round with a 70 after opening with a 2-under 68. After opening with a 4-under 66, Watkins cooled off a little with a 2-over 72 in Saturday’s second round.

   Joining Illinois’ Buchanan in the quintet tied for eighth place at 1-under 139 were Virginia’s Ben James, a freshman from Milford, Conn. and No. 7 in the WAGR, Florida’s Ricky Castillo, a senior from Yorba Linda, Calif. and No. 26 in the WAGR, San Francisco’s Matthew Anderson, a graduate student from Canada, and Stanford’s Barclay Brown, a senior from England and No. 59 in the WAGR.

   James, who has risen to the top of a talented freshman class across the country, added a 2-under 68 to his opening round of 1-over 71.

   Castillo, one of the heroes of the United States’ victory over Great Britain & Ireland in a rare spring Walker Cup Match two years ago at the iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., had the same splits as James, adding a 2-under 68 to his opening-round 71. Castillo went 4-0 in a hard-fought 14-12 victory for the U.S. at Seminole.

   Anderson and Brown had matching splits as well as each registered a 1-over 71 in Saturday’s second round after opening with a 2-under 68.

   Auburn junior Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York and No. 86 in the WAGR, cooled off a little with a 2-over 72 in Saturday’s second round after he had opened with a 2-under 68, but he was in the group tied for 13^th place at even-par 140.

   Bacha’s Tigers, ranked 12^th, have a little work to do as they added a 6-over 286 to their opening-round 288 and were in a tie for 11^th place with SEC rival and 14^th-ranked Texas A&M at 14-over 574.

   Missed another state champion in my opening-day post as Nate Menon, the PIAA Class AA champion as a junior at Wyomissing in 2015, is a sixth-year player at Stanford. Menon added a 4-over 74 to his opening-round 77 and was in the group tied for 122^nd place at 11-over 151.

   The Pac-12 champion Cardinal, ranked sixth, are struggling a little in the desert as they added a 6-over 286 to their opening round of 10-over 290 and are tied for 13^th place with No. 28 Georgia, another SEC entry, and WCC champion Brigham Young, ranked 37^th, at 16-over 576.

   Texas Tech senior Jack Wall, a quarterfinalist in the 2019 BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Stonewall playing out of Manasquan River Golf Club, added a 4-over 74 to his opening-round 72 and was in the group tied for 67^th place with a 6-over 146 total.

   Wall and the No. 5 Red Raiders, a Big 12 power, are in 16^th place in the team standings at 17-over 577 as they struggled to a 295 after opening with a solid 2-over 282.

   Shipley and Ohio State, out of the Big 10 and ranked 23^rd, were tied for 20^th place with No. 28 Arkansas at 22-over 582 after the Buckeyes added a 295 to their opening round of 7-over 287.

   Chattanooga sophomore Garrett Engle, a Central Dauphin product, added a 3-over 73 to his opening-round 75 and was in the group tied for 96^th place with an 8-over 148 total.

   Engle and the Moccassins, out of the Southern Conference and ranked 41^st, were alone in 27^th place in the team standings at 594 after they added a 300 in Saturday’s second round to their opening-round 294.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steelman helps Georgia Tech grab lead in the team standings as NCAA Championship tees off at Grayhawk

   Georgia Tech headed for the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. on a roll.

   The Yellow Jackets had captured the Atlantic Coast Conference’s championship, defeating Wake Forest in the match-play final at the Country Club of North Carolina before claiming the team crown in the Salem Regional at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls in Salem, S.C. with an eye-popping 53-under-par total.

   Georgia Tech, behind individual leader Ross Steelman, a senior from Columbia, Mo. and No. 21 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), kept that roll going Friday by grabbing the team lead with a solid even-par 280 at Grayhawk’s Raptor Course.

   It was the first day of 72 holes of stroke-play qualifying for match play. The field of 30 teams will be cut in half following Sunday’s third round. With The Golf Channel cameras rolling on a Memorial Day Monday, an individual NCAA champion will be crowned and the teams that survived the cut will battle it out to be one of the eight teams remaining for match play. The match-play quarterfinals will tee off Tuesday.

   That’s the ultimate goal for Georgia Tech: To get into the match play. The Yellow Jackets, No. 11 in the latest Golfstat rankings, took a big step toward realizing that goal with their even-par start over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Raptor Course layout.

   Steelman put together an efficient round that featured six birdies with nary a bogey on his scorecard as his 6-under 64 gave him a two-shot lead over a trio of his closest pursuers.

   Steelman got off to a good start by making birdies on the first, second and fourth holes, then added a closing burst with birdies at 13, 15 and 17 to get it to 6-under.

   West Coast Conference power Pepperdine, ranked eighth, and Southeastern Conference representative Arkansas, ranked 28^th, were a shot behind Georgia Tech in the team standings and were tied for second place at 1-over 281.

   Pepperdine won national crown at Grayhawk two springs ago and reached the semifinals a year ago. It was Arkansas that Georgia Tech had to overtake to claim the team crown in the Salem Regional, the Razorbacks finishing with a pretty impressive 45-under total themselves.

   SEC champion Vanderbilt, the No. 1 team in the country, headed a powerful trio of teams tied for fourth place at 2-over 282. Vanderbilt fell in the SEC’s match-play final to Florida in its bid for a second straight conference crown.

   Georgia Tech’s ACC rival, North Carolina, ranked No. 2, was also in the group at 2-over. The Tar Heels also emerged from the Salem Regional as they finished in third place, two shots behind Arkansas with a 43-under total.

   Big 12 power Texas Tech, ranked fifth, rounded out the trio of teams tied at 2-over.

   A couple of Florida teams, SEC champion Florida, ranked ninth, and Florida State, another ACC entry ranked seventh, accounted for the next two spots in the team standings as the Gators were in seventh place with a 3-over 283 total while the Seminoles were another shot behind Florida in eighth place with a 4-over 284 total.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the team standings were three teams tied for ninth place at 5-over 285, including yet another SEC representative in Georgia, ranked 25^th, Big Ten champion Illinois, No. 3 in the Golfstat rankings, and West Coast Conference runnerup San Francisco, ranked 40^th.

   Backing up Steelman for Georgia Tech was Bentley Forrester, a redshirt senior from Gainesville, Ga. and No. 53 in the WAGR who was in the group tied for 31^st place with a 1-over 71.

   Conner Howe, a senior from Ogden, Utah and No. 50 in the WAGR, was a shot behind his Georgia Tech teammate Forrester in the group tied for 47^th place with a 2-over 72. Christo Lamprecht, a junior from South Africa and No. 8 in the WAGR, was another shot behind Howe for the Yellow Jackets in the group tied for 90^th place with a 3-over 73.

   Rounding out the Georgia Tech lineup was Hiroshi Tai, a freshman from Singapore and No. 87 in the WAGR whose 6-over 76 that left him in the group tied for 115^th place, a score the Yellow Jackets were able to toss.

   Steelman’s closest pursuers in the individual chase included Vanderbilt’s Cole Sherwood, a senior from Austin, Texas and No. 18 in the WAGR, Arkansas’ Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, a senior from Argentina and No. 32 in the WAGR, and New Mexico’s Matthew Watkins, a junior from Rockwall, Texas, all of whom carded a solid 4-under 66.

   Fernandez de Oliveira’s Arkansas teammate, Wil Gibson, a graduate student from Jonesboro, Ark., was alone in fifth place with a 3-under 67.

   Among the eight players tied for sixth place at 2-under 68 was Auburn junior Carson Bacha, winner of the PIAA Class AAA crown in 2019 as a senior at Central York and No. 86 in the WAGR. Bacha seems to save his best stuff for Grayhawk as he finished in a tie for 20^th place in the individual standings a year ago.

   Auburn, another entry from the powerful SEC and ranked 12^th, was in 14^th place following an opening round of 8-over 288.

   The group at 2-under also includes Illinois’ Adrien Dumont de Chassart, a fifth-year player from Belgium and No. 11 in the WAGR, Oklahoma’s Drew Goodman, a sophomore home boy from Norman, Okla. and No. 51 in the WAGR, Texas Tech’s Matthew Comegys, a freshman from Van Alstyne, Texas, Stanford’s Barclay Brown, a senior from England and No. 59 in the WAGR, North Carolina’s Dylan Menante, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 14 in the WAGR, Pepperdine’s Roberto Nieves, a graduate student from Miami, Fla., and San Francisco’s Matthew Anderson, a graduate student from Canada.

If Nieves’ name is familiar to people in the Philadelphia area, it’s because he spent four years as a standout at Delaware. Nieves took the fifth year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to those whose season came to a premature end when the coronavirus pandemic surfaced in the spring of 2020 at Pepperdine.

   The Tar Heels’ Menante was in the Pepperdine lineup when the Waves fell to Arizona State in the semifinals at Grayhawk a year ago before transferring to Chapel Hill. It was Menate who ended the remarkable run of Downingtown West junior Nick Gross in the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. last summer before Menante fell to eventual champion Sam Bennett in the semifinals.