Oklahoma golf: Sooners fall to Pepperdine in NCAA Championship match-play final
By Chip Rouse
The No. 3-seeded Oklahoma golf team fought hard to the very end, but fell just short, losing 3-2 to Pepperdine for the 2021 national championship.
It was the second time since 2017 the Sooners had found themselves as one of the last two teams standing in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, but this one didn’t end with an Oklahoma celebration and hoisting the championship trophy.
The deciding third point for Pepperdine in the championship final, hosted at the Gayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, was earned on the 18th hole of the match between OU freshman Ben Lorenz and Pepperdine’s Clay Feagler. Lorenz needed to hole a long putt to extend the match, but his attempt came up just a foot or so short and Feagler was able to get down in two putts to win the match 1-up and secure the championship for the No. 3-seeded Waves.
OU’s two best golfers heading into the NCAA Championship match-play format, Jonathan Brightwell and Quad Cummins, both of whom had tied for 6th after 72 holes of stroke play in the championship, struggled early in the match-play final with Pepperdine, but the play of Lorenz and junior Logan McAllister picked up the slack through the opening nine holes and kept OU in the game and in a decent position to pull out the victory.
Brightwell battled back, after being down two early on the front nine of his match with Dylan Menante of Pepperdine, taking the lead for the first time in his match at the 10th hole. The lead changed hands once more before Brightwell edged back in front late, securing Oklahoma’s first point with a 1-up victory.
Moments later, however, Pepperdine evened the match, with Joey Highsmith closing out OU’s Garrett Reband 5-and-4 (five ahead with four holes to play). Reband, who actually ranked the highest of all the Sooner golfers in the world amateur rankings (6th), has struggled with his game much of this spring.
Halfway through the match, OU’s Lorenz was 2-up through 11 holes, junior Logan McAllister was 3-up after nine and Cummins was all square in his match after eight holes. None of the three won their match, although McAlister was credited with the Sooners second point by default because his match was not complete when Pepperdine earned the third point necessary to capture the national championship.
Brightwell was the only OU player to officially record a point with an 18-hole completed round.
Sooner seniors Brightwell, Cummins and Reband all finished the season in the top 10 of the inaugural PGA Tour-U rankings. That earns them professional status beginning next week. No other school had more than one golfer finish in the top 15 of the rankings.
Oklahoma closes out the 2020-21 college golf season with the third lowest scoring average in program history.
The season did not end the way the Sooners wanted it, but with this being Oklahoma’s fifth consecutive appearance in the match-play portion of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, resulting in a national championship in 2019 and a runner-up finish this year, the Sooners have served notice that they are a legitimate national force in college golf.