It’s Bedlam at NCAA Championship! Sooners, Cowboys square off in match play
CARLSBAD, Calif. – For the first time since the NCAA Championship switched to a match play format, the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooners will square off after they finished the 54-holes of stroke play in the fourth and fifth positions respectively.
Oklahoma State carded a 282 during the fourth round of action Monday at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa. The second-ranked Cowboys finished stroke play with a 72-hole total of 1,151, 1-under par, and one shot ahead of the Sooners. OSU earned the No. 4 seed for the match play portion of the event and will face No. 5 seed Oklahoma in tomorrow morning’s quarterfinal round. The Bedlam matchup is slated for a 9:40 a.m. (CST) start.
The match will mark the 10th time the Cowboys have appeared in the match play bracket since the implementation of the current format in 2009. OSU is 6-3 all time in its quarterfinal matches.
Individually, Preston Stout led the charge for OSU, claiming sole possession of third place at 7-under 281 after signing for his third consecutive round of 70. The sophomore bogeyed three of the final five holes on his outward nine to turn in 1-over 37. However, he would put together a bogey-free second nine with birdies at the 11th, 13th and 18th to move under par and into the top five.
Stout’s performance marked the best NCAA showing by a Cowboy since Eugenio Chacarra and Bo Jin logged back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Sophomore Ethan Fang fired his low round of the event, posting a 68 to rise 21 spots into a tie for 15th place at 287. Fang lit up the front nine with four birdies for a 4-under 32 on his opening side. He would play the back nine in even par to finish at 4-under for the day.
Sophomore Eric Lee carded a closing 72 to move up eight spots into a tie for 38th place at 292.
Freshman Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson also posted his low score of the event with a 72 to finish at 297 and tied for 60th place.
Sophomore Gaven Lane also finished at 297 after posting a 77 during his fourth round.
Live scoring for the event is available at scoreboard.clippd.com and Golf Channel coverage will begin at noon (CST).
Oklahoma advanced to match play for the seventh time since 2016, the most of any program during that span.
The sixth-ranked Sooners completed 72 holes of stroke play at even par, posting a 1,152 total after shooting 5-over in the final round.
“We’re excited to be in match play and competing for a national championship,” said 16th year head coach Ryan Hybl. “We had some really good moments over the last four days and a few we’d probably like to have back. But at the end of the day, what matters is being one of the eight teams with a shot to win it all, and we did enough to give ourselves that chance. We’ll be ready for a battle tomorrow against a really talented Oklahoma State team and look forward to competing.”
The matchup marks the first time the in-state rivals have met in NCAA match play. Oklahoma is 2-4 all-time in the quarterfinal round and last appeared in 2022. A win would send the Sooners to Tuesday afternoon’s semifinal to face either top-seeded Arizona State or eighth-seeded Ole Miss. The championship match is slated for Wednesday afternoon.
Two Sooners, Clark Van Gaalen and Drew Goodman, landed on the NCAA All-Tournament team with top-15 finishes in stroke play.
Van Gaalen (T13, -2) was in the hunt for the individual national title heading into Monday’s final round but carded a 75 (+3) to fall slightly down the board. He was still one of just two freshmen to finish inside the top 15. The Turlock, Calif., native is 0-1-0 in his collegiate match play career.
Goodman (T15, -1) closed his collegiate stroke play career with a 71 (-1), tying for 15th and securing the best NCAA finish of his career. With match play not counting toward career statistics, he ends stroke play as OU’s all-time leader in par-or-better rounds with 96, ranks second in scoring average vs. par (-0.31) and his 154 rounds played are the third most in program history. He enters Tuesday with an 11-8-1 career match play record, including a 1-0-0 mark at the NCAA Championships after winning his quarterfinal match in 2022.
Sophomore Ryder Cowan (T22, +1) fired a 73 (+1) in the final round after opening with three bogeys. He birdied the 10th to get back to 1-over on the day and parred out on holes 11 through 18. The Edmond, Okla., product is 5-1-1 in match play and will make his NCAA match play debut tomorrow.
Jase Summy (T50, +6) tied for 50th but will look to make an impact in match play, where the junior and All-SEC first-team honoree owns a 7-2-2 record.
PJ Maybank III (T60, +9) shot a steady 73 (+1) on Monday to help the Sooners clinch a top-eight spot and finish tied for 60th.
Arizona State (-14) won the stroke play portion of the championship and will face No. 8 seed Ole Miss. Top-ranked Auburn finished second and will take on seventh-seeded Virginia, while third-place Florida meets sixth-seeded Texas. All seven top-ranked teams in the national rankings advanced, with 10th-ranked Virginia the lone team outside the top eight.
Ole Miss’ Michael La Sasso claimed the individual national championship at 11-under par, sinking a clutch par putt on the 72nd hole to secure the Rebels’ spot in match play.
Tuesday’s Bedlam quarterfinal tees off at 9:40 a.m. CT when PJ Maybank III faces Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson. Drew Goodman and Ethan Fang follow at 9:50 a.m., then Jase Summy and Preston Stout square off at 10 a.m. Ryder Cowan and Gaven Lane begin at 10:10 a.m., with the anchor match between Clark Van Gaalen and Eric Lee starting at 10:20 a.m.
Golf Channel will provide live coverage beginning at noon CT for the quarterfinals and from 5–9 p.m. CT for the semifinals. Live scoring is available via Scoreboard by Clippd.
MATCH PLAY BRACKET
(1) No. 5 Arizona State vs. (8) No. 3 Ole Miss
(4) No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. (5) No. 6 Oklahoma
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(2) No. 1 Auburn vs. (7) No. 10 Virginia
(3) No. 7 Florida vs. (6) No. 4 Texas