Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma golf: A championship run spoiled by a season shutdown

By Chip Rouse

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Brooks Koepka of the United States hits from a sand trap on the ninth hole during the first round of The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Brooks Koepka of the United States hits from a sand trap on the ninth hole during the first round of The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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Mark Twain called golf “a good walk spoiled.” For those associated with the men’s Oklahoma golf team, that famous four-word quote could be rephrased this year to “a championship strut spoiled by a season shutdown.”

The Sooners were just two tournaments into the spring portion of their 2019-20 schedule and appeared to be primed for a run at what could have been a third national championship and second in three years.

Oklahoma was ranked No. 2 in the Golfstat 2020 NCAA Division I Top-25 rankings when the collegiate golf season, as well as all winter and spring college sports, were cancelled out of national health and safety concerns stemming from the spread of the coronavirus.

In five nonconference tournaments, beginning with a second-place finish in the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach in late August, the Sooners claimed two firsts, two seconds, a third and a seventh-place finish. The two team championships were at the Nike Collegiate Invitational in Portland, Oregon, and the Ka’anapali Classic in Maui, Hawaii, both as part of the fall schedule.

Oklahoma had competed in just two spring events — a second-place finish at the Puerto Rico Classic and seventh at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Tournament in Las Vegas, both in February — when the remainder of the season was cancelled.

Here is a numerical breakdown of several of the more notable team and individual accomplishments by men’s Oklahoma golf in the season that wasn’t:

2 – Two OU golfers won medalist honors at two different tournaments this season. Sophomore Logan McAllister won the individual title at the Nike Collegiate Classic with an 11-under-par, 54-hole score of 202, and senior Garett Reband captured his first collegiate victory, shooting nine-under 207 over 54 holes in the Puerto Rico Classic.

15 — Oklahoma golfers posted 15 top-15 individual finishes in the 2019-20 season.

18 — The Sooners played 18 rounds under par this season

263 — Final-round team score at the Ka’anapali Classic, 21 under par, setting a new Oklahoma program record for a single round.

-47 — OU’s final-round score in the Ka’anapali Classic wasn’t the only record that was broken. The Sooners’ finished with a three-round tournament-record score of 47-under-par 805.

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