Sooner softball isn’t the only OU team that advanced to the next stage of an NCAA Championship over the Memorial Day weekend. The Oklahoma golf team is also moving on.
The Sooners sit in second place after 54 holes in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship and is one of 15 teams that advanced to the final 18 holes of stroke play on Monday. After Monday’s 18-hole round, the field will be cut down to eight teams for the match-play portion of the championship format.
Fellow Big 12 rival Oklahoma State leads the championship after 54 holes at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, with a commanding 12-under-par team score of 828. Oklahoma is 13 strokes back in second at one-over-par 841 after three rounds. Arizona State (plus-two, 842) and Illinois (plus-four, 844), both of which finished in the top five, along with the Sooners, at the New Mexico Regional, sit in third and fourth place, respectively.
Florida State, the No, 1 overall seed heading into the NCAA Championship, is in fifth place with a score of nine-over 849.
.Oklahoma senior Quade Cummins is tied for third on the overall individual leaderboard with a three-round total of five-under-par 205. Teammate Jonathan Brightwell is tied for fifth, a shot behind, at 206. Both have shot under par over the Grayhawk Golf Club par-70 layout in all three rounds.
The Sooners, who were ranked No. 1 in the country in NCAA Division I golf for a good part of the spring season, are is excellent shape to be one of the eight teams to move on after 72 holes to the match play portion of the championship, which will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Scottsdale.
If Oklahoma is successful in making the 72-hole cut, they will advance to match play for the fourth consecutive year (not counting the cancelled 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic). The Sooners finished fifth in the championship in 2019, fourth in 2018 and were crowned national champions in 2017 for the second time in school history. OU’s first NCAA national golf championship was in 1989.