No. 1 Sooners, No. 2 Cowboys in battle with top field at National Invitational Tournament in Tuscon
TUCSON, Ariz. — Top-ranked Oklahoma and No. 2 Oklahoma State will both be competing in the National Invitational Tournament hosted by the University of Arizona this weekend at the par-72, 7,200-yard Catalina Course at Omni Tuscon.
The Sooners will look to tie a program record by winning its fifth tournament of the season in the 54-hole event that features the best field in golf this week as seven top-25 teams, including four inside the top 10.
The Sooners have won their last three events and have been dominant to open the spring. As a team, Oklahoma is a combined 97-under over its previous six rounds of play and has posted four of the school’s 10 lowest rounds in program history during that stretch. In addition, the 97-under mark over two tournaments marked the lowest combined scores vs. par in back-to-back events in NCAA history.
Teams will fight daylight and try and play 36 holes Friday before wrapping up with a final 18 holes on Saturday.
The Oklahoma lineup features three All-Americans, including Chris Gotterup, Logan McAllister and Patrick Welch. Those three will be joined by Drew Goodman and Stephen Campbell Jr., a freshman and redshirt freshman, respectively. In addition, Ben Lorenz joins the tournament as an individual.
The second-ranked Cowboys will be looking to repeat at the event after their four-stroke victory at last year’s tournament.
OSU’s starting five will consist of seniors Eugenio Chacarra and Aman Gupta as well as juniors Brian Stark and Rayhan Thomas. Senior Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who is coming off his first career victory in OSU’s last outing at the General Hackler Championship, will round out the lineup.
Sophomore Bo Jin will compete individually.
Chacarra was the runner-up at last year’s N.I.T., while Gupta tied for seventh place.
The Cowboys finished in fourth place in the team race at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club. Neergaard-Petersen was joined in the top 10 by Thomas and Gupta, who finished in sixth and tied for seventh place, respectively.
Live scoring for the event is available at golfstat.com.
The field as ranked by Golfstat.
No. 1 Oklahoma
No. 2 Oklahoma State
No. 5 Arkansas
No. 9 Pepperdine
No. 12 Texas
No. 13 Tennessee
No. 25 Illinois
Arizona (host)
Colorado State
New Mexico
San Diego
San Diego State
UNLV
USC
Wyoming