Cowboys, Sooners begin NCAA quests out west
Oklahoma State has begun defense of its NCAA Championship and Oklahoma will be looking for its 15th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance as regional play begins today.
OSU at NCAA Marana Regional · May 18-20 · Marana, Arizona
Venue: Gallery Golf Club • Par 72 • 7,317 Yards
Live Stats: scoreboard.clippd.com
Live Stream: https://www.babygrandegolf.com/
What 2 Watch 4
• The Cowboys will be in action this week at Gallery Golf Club. Regional action will consist of 54 holes over three days with play getting underway on Monday and running through Wednesday.
• The fifth-ranked Cowboys will be the No. 1 seed, while No. 8 LSU will be the No. 2 seed and 18th-ranked Arizona will be the No. 3 seed. The trio will begin play at 8:00 a.m. (CST).
• Six 54-hole regional tournaments will be conducted May 18-20. Thirteen teams and 10 individuals not on those teams will compete at each of three regionals while the other three regionals will have 14 teams and five individuals not on those teams.
• The top five teams and lone individual not on those teams from each regional will advance to the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., which is slated to take place from May 29-June 3.
OSU In Regional Play
• OSU leads the nation with 17 regional titles, seven more than the second-best total. The Cowboys have won eight regional titles in 11 tries under the direction of head coach Alan Bratton, including a run of six consecutive from 2016-22.
• The Cowboys opened with consecutive regional titles in 1989 and 1990 before adding their third in 1997. OSU went back-to-back again in 2002 and 2003 before adding another in 2006. The Cowboys reeled off three consecutive wins from 2009-11. After finishing first in 2014, OSU ran off six in a row from 2016-2022.
• The Cowboys captured their 17th title last year in Illinois.
Individual Success
In 2022, Eugenio Chacarra was medalist at the NCAA Columbus Regional to become the 12th Cowboy to do so. Kevin Wentworth won consecutive titles in 1989 and 1990 before Alan Bratton took top honors in 1995. Bo Van Pelt added his name to the list of medalists in 1997 before Jonathan Moore won nine years later. Kevin Tway won in 2008 and 2009 before Peter Uihlein’s victory in 2010. Tway became the first-ever player to win three regional crowns with his victory in 2011. Jordan Niebrugge and Kristoffer Ventura went back-to-back in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
The Bratton Era
Since taking over as head coach at his alma mater in 2013-14, Alan Bratton has maintained the program’s lofty standards.
• His squads have 51 team titles and have produced 44 individual medalists.
• Reached NCAA match play seven times, winning the 2018 NCAA Championship and finishing as the runner-up in 2014 before capturing their second title under his direction in 2025.
• Bratton has seen 29 Cowboys achieve All-America status and 35 Pokes earn All-Big 12 honors.
• Bratton’s 2018 squad remains the lone team to win the stroke play and match play portions of the NCAA Championship.
Season Recap
• OSU enters play with four wins to its credit on the year.
• OSU’s most recent victory came at the Big 12 Championship, its league-record 13th title and 58th conference crown overall.
• Preston Stout has won four of his last six starts and his four wins are tied for the most by a Cowboy during his junior campaign.
• Stout is one of three finalists for the Ben Hogan Award.
• Stout was tabbed as the Big 12 Player of the Year and was joined on the All-Big 12 team by Ethan Fang, Gaven Lane and Eric Lee.
Sooners looking to extend NCAA streak
Oklahoma will look to extend a program record this week and punch its ticket to a 15th consecutive NCAA Championships by finishing in the top five at the NCAA Corvallis Regional, which tees off on Monday. The Sooners enter the 13-team, 54-hole event as the No. 3 seed, the program’s seventh straight season as a top-three seed.
The tournament serves as the qualifying event for the NCAA Championships, which will be held May 29-June 3 at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. The top five teams and the lowest-scoring individual on a non-advancing team will move on to the championship.
All-time, Oklahoma has won eight NCAA Regionals, including five times under head coach Ryan Hybl (2015, 2018, 2022, 2024, 2025).
Top-seeded and sixth-ranked Arkansas headlines the field, followed by No. 7 Texas Tech and the Sooners. No. 19 Charlotte and No. 30 UCLA round out the top-five seeds and are joined by Notre Dame, San Diego, Purdue, Georgia Southern, Oregon State (host), Liberty, Xavier and Sacramento State.
OU brings its most experienced lineup to Corvallis as the card is headlined by All-SEC selections Jase Summy and Ryder Cowan. If Summy posts three rounds of par-or-better at the par-71 Trysting Tree GC he will tie Drew Goodman’s school record for par-or-better rounds in a career with 96, while Cowan is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 14. The top-20 duo is joined by sophomore Clark Van Gaalen, junior PJ Maybank III and senior Matthew Troutman, who graduated from the University of Oklahoma over the weekend. Sophomore Cameron Cheek will be available as the team’s substitute.
The Sooners have advanced out of their NCAA Regional in 14 straight seasons — the second-longest active streak in the nation.
THE FIELD WITH SEED AND CLIPPD RANKING
- No. 6 Arkansas
- No. 7 Texas Tech
- No. 17 Oklahoma
- No. 19 Charlotte (AAC champion)
- No. 30 UCLA (B1G champion)
- No. 31 Notre Dame
- No. 42 San Diego
- No. 43 Purdue
- No. 56 Georgia Southern
- No. 60 Oregon State (host)
- No. 80 Liberty (C-USA champion)
- No. 93 Xavier (Big East champion)
- No. 153 Sacramento State (Big Sky champion)
THE COURSE
Home of Oregon State golf, Trysting Tree Golf Club opened in 1988 and is one of the nation’s premier courses. The track hosted men’s and women’s NCAA West Regionals in 2011 and various Pac-12 championships. Originally designed by Ted Robinson and redesigned by Dan Hixon in 2017, the course will play as a par-71, 7,384-yard test for the week.
FORMAT
The 13-team, 54-hole event is one of six NCAA Regionals and acts as the qualifying round for the NCAA Championship. Oklahoma has reached the championship every year since 2011. The top five teams, along with the lowest-scoring individual not on an advancing team, will move on to the national tournament, set for May 29-June 3 at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
TEE TIMES AND PAIRINGS
The Sooners tee off at 9:30 a.m. CT with Arkansas and Texas Tech.
COVERAGE
Live scoring will be available on Clippd.