Cowboys, Sooners ready for Big 12 title run at Southern Hills CC

TULSA, Okla. — Oklahoma State’s men’s golf team will seek its 10th Big 12 crown this week when it begins play at the Big 12 Championship at Southern Hills Country Club.

The Cowboys will serve as the event’s No. 5 seed and will be grouped with fourth-seeded Baylor and No. 6 seed TCU at the historic venue. The trio will begin play on Monday at 8 a.m. The tournament will consist of 72 holes with 36 being played on Monday and 18 holes being played on Tuesday and Wednesday.

OSU’s lineup will consist of senior Tanner Kesterson, junior Jordan Niebrugge, sophomoreZachary Olsen, redshirt freshman Brendon Jelley and true freshman Kristoffer Ventura.

The Cowboys have won nine Big 12 titles in the 18-year history of the event. OSU won three of the first four tournaments, finishing atop the leaderboard in 1997, 1998 and 2000. The Cowboys’ next league title came in 2005 before reeling off five-straight victories from 2007-2011.

OSU has produced the event’s individual medalist on eight occasions with Leif Westerberg (1997), Charles Howell (2000), Anders Hultman (2002), Hunter Mahan (2003), Pablo Martin (2007), Rickie Fowler (2008) and Morgan Hoffmann (2009, 2011) all taking top honors.

Overall, the Cowboys have won 54 league titles and have produced 46 individual champions in the 68-year history of the program.

The 10th-ranked Sooners, coming off consecutive tournament victories, will be looking for their first conference title since 2006.

"We are ready for championship week," said Ryan Hybl, sixth-year OU head coach. "Our guys have been feeling good all week and the preparation all year has allowed us to be where we are right now. Our patience will have to be in check all week long, and hopefully we will have a chance coming down the stretch on Wednesday."

The Sooners are coming off consecutive wins to close the season at the Aggie Invitational and Liberty Spring Invitational. The victories marked the eighth and nine for OU under Hybl.

OU’s lineup will include seniors Michael Gellerman and Charlie Saxon, juniors Beau Titsworth and Luke Kwon and freshman Grant Hirschman.

The No. 3 seed Sooners will tee off at 8 a.m. CT on Monday from the first hole with No. 1 seed Texas and No. 2 seed Texas Tech. Admission to the event is free.

THE FIELD (GOLFSTAT RANKINGS IN PARENTHESES)
Texas (2)
Texas Tech (9)
Oklahoma (10)
Baylor (17)
Oklahoma State (20)
TCU (33)
Iowa State (42)
Kansas
Kansas State

FIRST ROUND PAIRINGS (WITH TOURNAMENT SEED)
First tee
8 a.m. CT         No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Texas Tech, No. 3 Oklahoma
8:50 a.m. CT    No. 7 Iowa State, No. 8 Kansas, No. 9 Kansas State

10th tee
8 a.m. CT         No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 6 TCU      

THE COURSE
The 7,184-yard, par-71 Southern Hills Country Club serves as the track for the 19th-annual Big 12 Championship. Southern Hills has played host to the conference event twice, most recently in 2006 when the Sooners took home the team title.

FORMAT
Teams will compete in 72 holes of stroke play over three days (36 on Monday, 18 on both Tuesday and Wednesday). Play will begin at 8 a.m. CT on Monday with tee times from holes No. 1 and 10.

WEATHER FORECAST
Monday: Cloudy with a 60 percent chance of showers. High of 63 degrees with winds from the east, northeast at 15-20 mph.
Tuesday: Cloudy with a 60 percent chance of showers. High of 59 degrees with winds from the north, northeast at 5-10 mph.
Wednesday: High of 72 degrees with winds from the north, northwest at 5-10 mph.

LIVE STATS
Live stats will be available at Big12Sports.com.