Sooners, Cowboys primed for NCAA Championship runs starting Friday at Omni La Costa

May 23, 2024May 23, 2024 Ken MacLeod

Fresh off strong performances in regional play, the Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys men’s golf teams head to the NCAA Championship beginning Friday at Omni La Costa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif.

Playing in its 13th straight NCAA Championship, the ninth-seeded Oklahoma men’s golf team tees off Friday in the program’s quest for its third national championship. Oklahoma State qualified for the NCAA Championship for the 75th time in 77 possible years and is seeking its 12th NCAA championship and first since 2018, when the team featuring Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff and Austin Eckroat dominated at Karsten Creek in Stillwater.

The Sooners’ streak of 13 straight NCAA appearances under head coach Ryan Hybl is the second-longest in the country, and 2024 marks the sixth straight season that OU has been a top-10 seed at the championship.

“We’re really excited to have the chance to compete for a national championship,” Hybl said. “La Costa is a great venue and will be a solid test for our guys and the rest of the field. We’re going to play with a chip on our shoulder, because we know what we can do as a team and showed it during the regional. I just can’t wait to see our guys get after it starting Friday and go compete.”

Oklahoma tees off at 2:55 p.m. CT on Friday at the par-72, 7,538-yard track, which will host the championships for the first time. The tournament will be contested over 72 holes of stroke play, with the field being cut from 30 to 15 teams after 54 holes. Following 72 cumulative holes, the field will be narrowed to eight teams who will square off in a quarterfinal, semifinal and final match to determine a team national champion.

The Sooners have won three tournaments this season, including a dominant performance to win the NCAA Rancho Santa Fe Regional and qualify for the championship. That victory, paired with wins at the prestigious Southern Highlands Collegiate and the Ka’anapali Classic, has OU primed as a contender entering the week. Despite playing one of the toughest schedules in college golf, the Sooners’ 136 head-to-head wins at their 12 tournaments rank third nationally, and Hybl’s championship lineup features three top-100 players.

NCAA Regional individual champion Ben Lorenz will take the top bag at La Costa. The All-American rattled off a career-low 64 in the final round at Rancho Santa Fe to win the title and help OU punch its ticket to the championship. Drew Goodman, who finished ninth at regionals, claims the second bag at his third consecutive NCAA Championship. True freshman Ryder Cowan will make his title debut this week, earning the No. 3 bag for Hybl’s squad. Luke Kluver and Jase Summy, each with NCAA Championship experience, round out the starting lineup. Freshman PJ Maybank III will serve as Oklahoma’s substitute if necessary.

The Cowboys will be the No. 18 seed for the event. Fifth year Rayhan Thomas will be joined in the lineup by seniors Jonas Baumgartner and Bo Jin as well as freshmen Gaven Lane and Preston Stout. Fifth year Hazen Newman will serve as the squad’s substitute.

The Cowboys will begin play on Friday morning at 6:40 a.m. (PST) and will be grouped with Texas A&M and New Mexico. Those three teams will get play underway on Saturday at noon.

OSU has won 11 NCAA titles and has produced nine individual national champions with its most recent national championship coming in 2018 at Karsten Creek. OSU’s first NCAA crown came in 1963 under Labron Harris. Former head coach Mike Holder captured eight titles (1976, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995 and 2000).

Mike McGraw won the crown in 2006, while Alan Bratton won his first in 2018, giving all four coaches in program history a title. OSU has also produced 17 runner-up finishes after placing second in 2014 at Prairie Dunes Country Club.

Earl Moeller was OSU’s first individual champion in 1953 and was followed by Grier Jones in 1968. David Edwards won in 1978 and was followed by Scott Verplank, Brian Watts and E.J. Pfister, who won consecutively from 1986-88. Charles Howell won in record-setting fashion in 2000 and was the program’s seventh national champion. Jonathan Moore won in 2006 and Matthew Wolff took top honors in 2019.

Since the current format was implemented in 2009, OSU has advanced to match play nine times. The Cowboys finished second in 2010 and 2014, tied for third in 2011, 2019 and 2021. OSU tied for fifth in 2009 and 2017 before breaking through in 2018. The Cowboys tied for fifth once again in 2022. During that span, OSU has won the stroke play portion of the event four times: 2009 (13 shots), 2010 (four shots), 2018 (eight shots), 2019 (31 shots).

THE FIELD BY ORDER OF SEED

Auburn, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida State, Texas, Virginia, Texas Tech, (9) Oklahoma, Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Georgia Tech, East Tennessee State, California, Texas A&M, New Mexico, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Stanford, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Baylor, Ohio State, North Florida, LSU, SMU, Clemson, West Virginia, Utah.

THE NORTH COURSE AT OMNI LA COSTA

The North Course at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa will play home to the championship. The par-72, 7,538-yard course is the longest course for a championship since the 2019 title was contested at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. Located just north of San Diego in Carlsbad, Calif., the North Course was ranked as one of the top-100 golf courses in America in 2020. Redesigned by Gil Hanse specifically for the NCAA Championships, the new home of college golf through at least 2026, the North Course opened in 1965 and served as the host of the PGA TOUR’s Mercedes Championships from 1969-1998 and has hosted the WCC-Accenture Match Play Championships eight times.

Hanse and his team made significant design changes to the course with the NCAA’s match-play format in mind, aiming to create a layout that challenges the best players in the game. A key feature of the new design is the increased number of risk-reward decisions players must make during their rounds. Notable changes include a drivable par-4 at hole 11, a repositioned green on the par-3 16th hole inspired by Augusta National’s famous 12th hole, and a formidable finishing hole: the par-5 18th, now stretching over 600 yards from the back tee with water hazards on both sides of the fairway.

FORMAT

The NCAA Men’s Golf Championship consists of three days of stroke play on Friday through Sunday (54 holes), with the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing team moving on. That is followed by a final day of stroke play on Monday to determine the top eight teams advancing to match play and the 72-hole individual champion. The team national champion will be determined by match play.

LIVE SCORING

Live scoring will be available on Golfstat.com.

TV SCHEDULE

Golf Channel will provide live coverage of the final three days of the championship, showcasing the best collegiate golf in the country. The NCAA will crown an individual champion on Monday and a team champion on Wednesday.

Monday, May 27: 3-9 p.m. CT (Individual National Championship)

Tuesday, May 27: 3-9 p.m. CT (Match Play)

Wednesday, May 29: 3-9 p.m. CT (Match Play)