Oklahoma golf: Sooners set school scoring record in season opener
By Chip Rouse
Men’s Oklahoma golf began the 2022-23 season with a second-place finish in the inaugural Frederica Cup held this past week at St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Coming of a 2021-22 season in which the Sooners were ranked No. 1 but fell in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship and lost two of their better golfers to graduation, Oklahoma started off the new season right where they left off, in championship form, finishing second to top-ranked Vanderbilt by three strokes.
Oklahoma shot a 54-hole score of 66 under par, including 94 birdies, in a six-count-five, three-day tournament contested at the Frederica Golf Club nestled along the Georgia coast.
Vanderbilt’s winning team score of 69 under par was three better than the Sooners, who finished 20 strokes better than third-place Texas Tech (-46) and 22 shots better than Georgia (-44) in fourth place.
Even more notable than the runner-up finish in the season-opening tournament, when you adjust the scoring to the more conventional five-count-four format (in which only the four top scores of the five team members playing), the Sooners 61-under-par score set a new school record. The previous OU record for four players in a five-man format was 59 under par set last season in the Puerto Rico Classic in February.
The entire OU team finished in the individual top 20, with three finishing in the top 10. Sophomore Drew Goodman, who tied for 20th in the stroke play portion of the NCAA Men’s Championship last spring led all Sooner golfers, finishing with a 54-hole score of 15 under par. He tied for fourth place among individuals with Sooner teammate Jase Summy, both with scores of 15 under.
Redshirt senior Patrick Welch tied for seventh (-14), redshirt sophomore Stephen Campbell Jr. tied for 15th (-9), redshirt sophomore Jaxson Dowell tied for 19th (-7), and redshirt junior Jake Holbrook, whose score did not count in the five-man team score, was at seven under par, good for a tie for 19th.
As a result of Oklahoma’s second-place finish in the Frederica Cup, the Sooners moved from No. 9 in the Golfweek D1 Coaches Poll up to No. 4 this week.
Next up for the Sooner men’s golf team is the Inverness Intercollegiate Tournament Sept. 25-26 in Toledo, Ohio.