Oklahoma Golf: Sooners moving up after 36 holes in NCAA Regional
By Chip Rouse
With the top five teams earning a spot in the NCAA Men’s Championship finals, the Oklahoma golf team is in position to advance out of the Stanford Regional with 18 holes left to play.
Sophomore Brad Dalke, who shot a five-under-par 65 in the opening round of the 54-hole tournament at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., did one better on Tuesday with career-best 64, fueling the Sooners to fourth place on the leaderboard after 36 holes.
Dalke’s 36-hole score of 11-under 129 also gave him a three-stroke lead atop the leaderboard over Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, who entered the NCAA regional preliminaries as the No. 3-ranked golfer in Division I, according to Golfstat.
Dalke’s 36-hole score is the best of any Division I golfer competing in any of the six NCAA regionals this week. If he and his OU teammates can keep it up for one more 18-hole round on Wednesday, Oklahoma should punch its ticket to the NCAA Men’s Championship finals next week at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill.
The two Big 12 schools competing in the Stanford Regional, Baylor and Oklahoma, hold down two of the top four places after the second round. Baylor is the leader at the 36-hole mark with a team score of 18-under 542. The Bears were red hot on Day 2, coming in at 15-under 265.
“Tomorrow is a big day, and our guys know that it is all about staying patient and executing properly.” –OU golf coach Ryan Hybl
The Sooners, the No. 3 seed at Stanford, are 15 strokes back at 557. Host school Stanford is seven shots back of Baylor heading into the final round, followed by Pepperdine, at 555. OU is currently three strokes better than fifth-place Georgina Tech after 36 holes.
Dalke got things going his way right from the start on Tuesday, carding an eagle on the par-five first hole.
OU junior Grant Hirschman, who shot a one-under 69 in the opening round on Monday, was four-over-par on Tuesday with a 74 and is three-over for the first two rounds. Senior Max McGreevy rebounded nicely after an opening-round 75, firing a three-under 67 on Day 2.
“Tomorrow is a big day, and our guys know that it is all about staying patient and executing properly,” OU head coach Ryan Hybl said in an interview with Sooner athletic department student assistant Andie Beene after Tuesday’s second round.
If the Sooners are one of the five teams that advances to the NCAA Championships next week, it will be the seventh consecutive time they have done so and the 38th time overall.