Oklahoma golf: Sooners finish 3rd in regional, advance to NCAA Championship
By Chip Rouse
The men’s Oklahoma golf team is still alive and moving on to the NCAA Championship after finishing third in the Pullman Regional.
The Sooners posted a 54-hole score of 30-under-par 810, placing them three shots back of regional champion Texas A&M and one shot behind second-pace Brigham Young. OU showed great consistency, scoring three straight rounds of 10-under 270 over the Par-70, 7,232-yard layout at the Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman, Washington.
Oklahoma now advances to the NCAA Championship May 24-29 at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The top five teams and top five individuals (not on one of the five qualifying teams) at six regional sites qualify for the NCAA Championship.
The Sooners were the No. 1 seed in the Pullman Regional and the No. 5 overall seed in the 2019 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship.
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OU senior Blaine Hale tied for third on the individual leaderboard with a 54-hole total of 12-under 198. He shot three straight sub-par rounds, including a career best score of eight-under 62 on Day 2 of the three-day regional championship. Hale’s 62 on Tuesday, which included eight birdies and no bogeys, also matched the course record and was the low score in the 54-hole tournament.
Hale’s shot two-under 68 on Day 2, giving him the second lowest 36-hole total by a Sooner in NCAA Championship history (current teammate Brad Dalke shot 129 over 36 holes in the Stanford Regional in 2017, the same season OU won the national championship.
Junior Garrett Reband got the Sooners off to a strong start with a round of 6-under 64 in the in Monday’s opening round. He shot a 54-hole score of 8-under 202, which was good enough for 11th place on the leaderboard. Redshirt junior Quade Cummins was one shot back of Reband, finishing at nine-under 203 for the 54 holes and a share of 12th place.
In 15 rounds of golf, the five Oklahoma team members (only the low four scores are used for the team score) posted only two rounds over par.
Thirty teams qualify for the NCAA Championship. The championship format includes a 72-hole tournament. The top eight teams after 72 holes advance to a three-day team match play tournament. The winner of team match play is crowned national champion.
Oklahoma has won two national titles (1989, 2017). The Sooners were eliminated by Auburn in the quarterfinal match-play portion of the 2018 NCAA Championship. The Sooners won it all the year before.