By Leeroy Francis Jr. |Staff Writer
The Augusta University men’s golf team received an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I regionals with their fourth straight MEAC Championship on April 21. With that bid, the Jaguars took advantage.
Needing to place in the top-five at the NCAA Raleigh Regionals last week, the Jaguars did one better. The Jaguars placed in a tie for fourth place to advance to the NCAA Championship in Stillwater, Okla., starting this Friday. The national championship will be held at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater and will be hosted by top-ranked Oklahoma State. The last time Augusta played at Karsten Creek, it successfully defended its 2011 national title.
After close calls in the regionals in 2016 and 2017, the Jags came together at Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, N.C., and played their best golf of the season to punch their ticket to Oklahoma, passing fourth-ranked Georgia Tech, No. 5 California and No. 21 Arizona State.Jaguar senior Broc Everett, a 6-foot-4 left-hander, shot a first-round 67 and posted 66s in the last two rounds in the final regional tournament of his collegiate career to finish with a 199 (14 under par). That was good for second place in the 74-man field.Everett’s score tied the school record for low 54-hole total. His 66s during the second and third rounds were one stroke shy of his career best. He posted 17 birdies on the week and had his name near the top of the leaderboard the entire tournament to lead the Jaguars. Everett's second-place finish is the second-best finish at a NCAA regional in school history.“It was awesome,” said the West Des Moines, Iowa, Valley High School product. “We have had a great team all season. I knew our team had the ability to play really well, and it was nice to finally have it happen, especially in the last round at (NCAA) regionals to bring us home. We needed to play well during the tournament, so I think we kind of focused our preparation as we were getting ready and it paid off in the end.” It wasn’t a half bad week for Everett, who graduated last Friday with an MBA degree.Everett got plenty of help from AU’s younger players. Freshman Laken Hinton matched his career-low round of 68 on the final day and placed in a tie for 32nd. Freshman Alex Shead of Appling and sophomore Gustav Andersson each tied for 40th place. Shead shot a final-round 71 and Andersson a 70. AU freshman Olof Gunnarson bested his previous career-low score by four strokes for a 66 in the final round to finish 59th.A happy Jack O’Keefe is heading to his first NCAA national championship final as the head coach for the Jaguars. “We had to clutch up on the last day and we sure did,” said O’Keefe, who is in his fifth year as the AU coach. “We had 16 birdies on the back nine alone. My hat is off to the guys in a total team effort. We’re excited to obviously be going back to Stillwater, and 2011 is the last time they hosted the national championship. We’re going to try and use those vibes and the vibes from today to carry forward and see what we can do.”The Jaguars’ coach said the team seized the initiative on the final day in Raleigh.“We hung in there the first day,” he said. “The second day we kind of struggled, but we kept it within range and the last day we just caught fire. We got more comfortable as the tournament went on, and I think what happened was those birdies almost became contagious. You just had that feeling that electricity was in the air where things were going on and we were the ones making all the putts and the birdies, so it was really neat.”
No. 16 Texas was in control all tournament and won at a combined 39-under-par for the tournament. No. 28 Duke took second place, finishing 22 under par for the tournament. Host N.C. State placed third at 21 under. Augusta was fourth at 20 under, and No. 21 Arizona State took fifth at 18 under. Texas standout Doug Ghim, the No. 3 ranked amateur golfer in the nation who played in the Masters in April, won the individual title in Raleigh with a 17-under-par score.The low five teams and the low individual not on those teams from each of the six regionals meet for the NCAA title on May 25-30.
This is the first time since the 2011 season for Augusta to make the national final tournament. In 2011 the Jaguars were led by the current Masters champion Patrick Reed and won their second straight national championship.
At OSU, play consists of three days of stroke play on Friday, May 25 through Sunday, May 27. Then the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing team will be determined. That is followed by a final day of 18 holes of stroke play on Monday, May 28 to determine the top eight teams that will advance to match play as well as the 72-hole individual champion. A match-play format will determine which team wins the national championship. That will consist of quarterfinals and semifinals conducted on Tuesday, May 29, followed by finals on Wednesday, May 30.“There are 296 teams playing Division I golf,” O’Keefe said, trying to put things in perspective, “and we are one of the 30 still playing.”
Contact Leeroy Francis at lfrancis@augusta.edu