Oklahoma golf: No. 1 men take on Pepperdine in East Lake Cup final
By Chip Rouse
The men’s Oklahoma golf team fought off elimination with a comeback win over Texas to move into the finals of the prestigious East Lake Cup.
The No. 1-ranked Sooners will face No. 2 Pepperdine in an 18-hole match-play final on Wednesday at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
Down two matches to none through 13 holes on Tuesday, the Oklahoma trio of junior Logan McAllister, and seniors Jonathan Brightwell and Quade Cummins mounted an incredible comeback, prevailing over their Texas opponents to propel the Sooners into Wednesday’s championship round with a 3-2 victory.
The Sooners also defeated Texas earlier in the month for third place in the Big 12 Match Play Championship.
Pepperdine, the tournament’s No. 2-seeded team defeated No. 4 Texas Tech in the other semifinal bracket.
Oklahoma earned the No. 1 seed by winning the 18-hole stroke-play portion of the East Lake Cup on Monday. OU junior Patrick Welch posted a five-under-par score of 67 to capture medalist honors. Cummins shot 69 to finish in a tie for second on the individual leaderboard and Brightwell tied for fourth with 70.
The Sooners team score in stroke play was 10-under-par 278, seven shots better than second-place Pepperdine.
The East Lake Cup, the final event in the OU men’s golf schedule, was started in 2015 to provide the top college teams in the country a chance to compete early in the season in an NCAA championship-type competition. The Cup features the top four men’s and women’s teams in the country. The two divisions play 18 holes of stroke play on the first day, followed by a match-play semifinal and championship final on days two and three.
The Sooner men finished third in the 2017 East Lake Cup.