Oklahoma golf: No. 1 Sooners lead NCAA Championship after 54 holes
By Chip Rouse
The No. 1-seeded Oklahoma golf team is right where the rankings projected the Sooners to be with 18 holes of stroke play remaining before the field is cut to eight finalists in the NCAA Men’s Championship.
The Sooners ended the third round holding on to first place with a one-under-par score of 839 after 54 holes. The field of 30 was cut to 15 after the third round of play at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Oklahoma was in sixth place, five shots back of the leader, Vanderbilt, after the opening 18 holes, but the Sooners took over the top spot on Day 2 with a two-shot lead and stretched the lead to four shots in the third round on Sunday.
The top 15 teams (which you can view by clicking here) advance to the final round of stroke play on Monday.
Oklahoma State, the No. 2 seed in the championship is right behind the Sooners, four shots back. Vanderbilt is third, six shots back, and North Carolina is in fourth place, 10 shots back of OU.
Texas, out of the Big 12 is in seventh place, 21 shots off the pace, and Texas Tech also made the top-15 cut. The Red Raiders are tied for 11th place, 30 shots back.
Senior Patrick Welch shot a career-best seven-under 63 on Sunday to lead the Sooners. Chris Gotterup also had an under-par round with a 68 over the par-70, 7,289 track at Grayhawk Golf Club, home course of Arizona State.
Gotterup currently sits in second place on the individual leaderboard, three under par after 54 holes. Welch is in fourth place at one under par.
The Sooners won the NCAA Men’s Championship in 1989 and again in 2017 and were runners-up to Pepperdine last year.