OSU's Eckroat breaks course record at Oak Tree
EDMOND — After making birdies his first six holes at Oak Tree National last week, Oklahoma State's Austin Eckroat started thinking about golf's magic number. Fifty-nine.
After a bogey on the 10th hole and a few too many pars on the back nine, Eckroat couldn't quite reach such an historic feat, but he still accomplished something of huge significance.
Finishing with a score of 10-under-par 61, Eckroat set the course record at Oak Tree National, three strokes better than two of the most famous professional golfers to come out of Oak Tree — Bob Tway and Scott Verplank. Both had shot 64 from the back tees in the course's current configuration at 7,410 yards.
Another former touring pro, Willie Wood, once shot 62 on the course's previous configuration, which was about 6,900 yards, according to Golf Oklahoma Magazine editor Ken McLeod.
“I had a pretty good warm-up session, then I birdied the first three holes, and I didn't make a putt outside of 8 feet,” Eckroat said. “I had an 8-footer, a 6-footer and a tap-in. I started thinking, I don't think I've ever birdied the first three holes out here.”
After he birdied the sixth hole, the former Edmond North star began to think 59 was a real possibility.
Playing with former OSU teammates Nick Heinen and Matthew Wolff, and current OU senior Quade Cummins, Eckroat finished the front nine with a 29.
“It was the easiest golf I've ever played,” Eckroat said. “It was the ball going straight, the ball going close, then making the putt.”
Aside from his lone bogey, Eckroat said he missed a couple other makeable birdie putts. Still, he made 10 birdies over a 13-hole span on his way to the best round ever shot on one of the state's most prominent courses.
Eckroat's round was the second time in less than a year that he's shot 61. He did it at Stillwater Country Club during a qualifying round at OSU during the school year.
Now, he hopes he can carry his strong play into competition as the summer amateur circuit nears its return.
“This is a terrible time to be playing my best golf. There's nothing going on,” Eckroat joked. “But hopefully this is a new trend. I have been practicing a little more and feeling
comfortable.”
Eckroat will be back in amateur competition in the Southern Amateur, the Western Amateur, the Sunnehanna and the U.S. Amateur.
“Right now, they're not doing qualifying for the U.S. Open, but they're going to exempt some amateurs into it, and I'm really close to the line that might be getting in,” said Eckroat, who qualified for the event last year as well. “So hopefully, after these summer events, I can get an exemption into the U.S. Open.”