Oklahoma golf: OU opens 1st round of NCAA Championship in 6th place
By Chip Rouse
The No. 1-ranked men’s Oklahoma golf team shot a seven-over par 287 over the opening 18 holes of the NCAA Championship on Friday, good for sixth place, five strokes back of the leader Vanderbilt.
The 2022 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship is being played at par-70 Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Thirty teams are competing in the championship, which will be cut to 15 teams after 54 holes and down to eight after 72 holes.
The remaining eight teams after will advance to the championship playoff consisting of a quarterfinal, semifinal and final-round conducted in a match-play format to determine the national champion. The top-seeded Sooners were runners-up a year ago in the NCAA Championship to Pepperdine.
The Sooners were one of just two teams to play the first nine holes even or under par on Friday but struggled over the final nine holes, shooting seven-over. Overall, the OU team recorded 61 pars over the first 18 holes, fourth best among the 30 teams competing for the first three rounds.
True freshman Drew Goodman led OU in the first round, shooting an even-par 70. Goodman is tied for eighth place on the individual leaderboard. Senior Logan McAlister shot one-over 71, which was good for a tie for 16th.
Oklahoma is paired with the first-round leader Vanderbilt and Big 12 rival Oklahoma State in the second round on Saturday. Oklahoma State, the runner-up to the Sooners in this year’s Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship, was in ninth place (289, +9) after the opening 18 holes. Other
The team from Kansas was ahead of the Sooners, tied for fourth place after the opening day of the championship, one shot better than OU. Other Big 12 teams among the 30 still standing in the NCAA Championship are Texas (291, +11) and Texas Tech (297, +17).