Oklahoma golf: No. 2 Sooners finish No. 1 in NCAA Golf Championship
By Chip Rouse
dd Oklahoma golf to the national championship trophies that are on prominent display at a school that prides itself on producing champions in sports that extend well beyond the center piece of football.
On Wednesday, on the sixth day of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., sophomore Brad Dalke sunk a short putt on the 17th hole to not only win his match over Solomon Raza of Oregon but, more importantly, secure the national championship for the Sooners..
Oklahoma defeated the Oregon Ducks, the defending national champions, 3-1-1 to win their second national title in the sport. It comes 28 years after the Sooners first NCAA championship in golf, in 1989.
“We didn’t have a weak link this week,” Sooner coach Ryan Hybl told reporters after the Wednesday’s championship final. “All these guys, everybody won a match, at least one match, and they all produced in stroke play.
“It was a great week from start to finish for our guys.”
Blaine Hale garnered the Sooner’s first point in the championship final, closing out Oregon’s Norman Xiong on the 15th hole. Hale was OU’s highest finisher in the 72-hole, stroke-play tournament that preceded the eight-team match-play final. The sophomore from Dallas tied for 11th on the individual leaderboard with a two-under-par, 72-hole score of 286.
After Wednesday’s round, Hale told a Golf Channel reporter that he grew up an Oklahoma State fan, but he elected to go the OU because the Sooners win championships. On Wednesday, on the Illinois plains, he became a big part of one of those championships.
Dalke and Hale, both only in their second year at OU, and senior Max McGreevy won their matches against Oregon, and junior Grant Hirschman battled Ryan Gronlund of Oregon to a tie.
The Duck’s Wyndham Clark, who played for three seasons at Oklahoma State before transferring to Oregon, defeated junior Rylee Reinertson on the final hole to secure Oregon’s lone point in the championship match. Reinertson won both of his matches on Tuesday, however, to help Oklahoma advance to the championship against Oregon.
“It’s been a long season,” Hybl said, “and it’s very gratifying knowing that we get to hoist the trophy.”
Already in 2017, OU has won NCAA team championships in three sports: men’s and women’s gymnastics and now men’s golf. This past weekend, the Oklahoma men’s tennis doubles team of Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa brought home OU’s first national championship in tennis.
Big 12 schools have won 15 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships. The most recent Big 12 champion was Texas in 2012. Oklahoma State leads all Big 12 schools with 10 national titles in golf; the Longhorns have worn the national crown three different times.