Big 12 advances four teams to NCAA match play
— The Big 12/SEC challenge is coming to the golf course.
The Big 12 Conference earned four of the eight spots in the match play bracket of the NCAA men’s golf championships, and three of them will face an opponent from the SEC in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinal round.
Top-seeded Oklahoma State will face No. 8 seed Texas A&M, and fourthseeded Oklahoma will meet No. 5 Auburn, with the winners meeting in Tuesday afternoon’s semifinals.
Third-seeded Texas Tech will take on Alabama, with second-seeded Duke meeting Texas in the opening round.
“I feel like we’ve got the best college golf conference in the country. I really do,” OU coach Ryan Hybl said. “Out of the six regionals, four of our Big 12 teams won. We only had 10 teams, and seven of our Big 12 teams made it to the national championship. It’s very strong.”
Karsten Creek shows its bite
The Oklahoma wind finally blew a little. The heat and humidity were up. The greens were fast.
Karsten Creek gradually played tougher as the NCAA men’s championships went on, and the conditions made it even more challenging on Monday.
The 84 players in the field finished with an average score of 75.54 on the par-72 layout, more than a full stroke above the first round.
The wind, in particular, made players adjust to the layout.
“Some of the holes played a little bit longer,” individual runner-up Brandon Mancheno of Auburn said. “Some of the holes that were birdie holes yesterday were par holes today. Some of the pins were tougher, too.
By the numbers
1: Player with an underpar score for the week on Karsten Creek’s par 4s. Mancheno was 1-under par, playing 40 par-4s in four rounds.
6: Eagles by Texas Tech players, twice as many as any other team in the field.
79: Scores of doublebogey or worse on Karsten Creek’s 10th hole through stroke play the last four days. The 477-yard par-4 was the hardest hole on the course this week, with an average score of 4.61. It yielded only 31 birdies in 551 rounds.
228: Birdies made on hole No. 18. The 575-yard par-5 played as the easiest hole on the course in stroke play. For the week, the course’s par-5s were the four easiest holes on the course, all averaging a score below par.