Sooners, Cowboys ready for Stephens Cup at Oklahoma City G&CC

By Ken MacLeod

It’s been a while since the Perry Maxwell-designed Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club opened its doors to collegiate golfers, as it will Monday through Wednesday as it hosts the prestigious Stephens Cup.

Oklahoma State coach Alan Bratton remembers the previous collegiate tournament there, which was the 1994 NCAA Central Regional. In the midst of an All-American junior season, Bratton placed fifth in the regional and then went on to finish second individually in the NCAA Championship. He was named a co-winner of the Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year award.

The following year Bratton and Chris Tidland, now the director of golf at Stillwater Country Club, were key figures in the remarkable takedown of Tiger Woods and Stanford in the NCAA Championship at the Scarlett Course at Ohio State University.

So Bratton is excited to bring his current team to compete in what has turned into one of the most unique annual showcases of college golf.

“First, it’s just great anytime we get to play in the state and our fans can come out,” Bratton said. “Second, Oklahoma City is in incredible shape and it offers some of Perry Maxwell’s original green designs. I know it’s been restored (most notably by Tripp Davis in 2020) but I believe a lot of his original contours are still there.”

The Stephens Cup, is the brainchild of Warren Stephens, chairman and CEO of Stephens Inc., the investment banking behemoth based in Little Rock, Ark. and put on in memory of his father Jackson T. Stephens. It features six men’s and six women’s Division I teams as well as golfers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and military school golfers.

Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Florida State, San Diego State, Arkansas and Southern Methodist, led by Tulsan William Sides, comprise the men’s field.  The Sooners, coming off back-to-back victories, are currently ranked No. 1 by Scoreboard. The Cowboys are 14^th, Southern Methodist 20, Florida State 26, Arkansas 38 and San Diego State 90.

In the flush women’s division, Arkansas, one of the nation’s most talented teams, will battle Oklahoma State, Florida State, Oregon, South Carolina and Wake Forest.  Arkansas is currently No. 1 in the Scoreboard rankings followed by South Carolina at No. 2.  Florida State is No. 9, Oregon 13, Wake Forest 17 and Oklahoma State 30.

The schedule for the week includes a college-am and a clinic for First Tee of Oklahoma participants on Sunday, followed by 36 holes of stroke play on Monday, 18 holes on Tuesday and then match play among the top four men’s and women’s teams on Wednesday.

Portions of the tournament will be televised by The Golf Channel. Tickets are $25 for a daily pass with those 17 and under admitted free. Go to www.stephenscup.com for tickets and more information.

This will be the fourth year for the tournament, which was first held at The Alotian Club outside Little Rock, founded by Warren Stephens, and then went to Seminole and Trinity Forest.

Bratton’s lineup will include Preston Stout, Ethan Fang, Eric Lee, Gaven Lane and Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson. OSU is coming off a fifth place finish in the Big 12 Match Play Tournament and took third at the Fighting Illini Invitational. OSU has two freshmen from the state on the roster in Collin Bond and Grant Gudgel who have not seen action as yet.

The Sooners, on the other hand, depend heavily on their two state stars in senior Drew Goodman and sophomore Ryder Cowan, both of whom were instrumental in the team’s recent victories in the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio and the Hogan Collegiate at Colonial, where Cowan was sixth and Goodman tied for third.

Goodman is off to a strong start to his senior season after middling for him results as a junior.

“Last year was a bit of a disappointment for him and he could never quite get on the right side of momentum,” said OU coach Ryan Hybl, who picked up his 46^th and 47^th career wins. “He is super competitive and as his putting and short game continue to thrive, when he’s driving well he’s tough to beat. I’m proud of what he did at Colonial, that course had beat him up pretty good in the past. But he changed his mindset and was able to capitalize on a different strategy.

“Ryder keeps showing me signs of how really, really good he can be. I love a lot of what he does as a player. I’ve seen the most growth out of him in the last 12 months of anyone in our program. If he continues to do a better job of managing his emotions, expectations and attitude, he can be one of the better players we’ve had in our program.”

The Sooners will also start Jase Summy, PJ. Maybank and Matthew Troutman.

The top-ranked player in the men’s field is the No. 1 amateur in the world, Luke Clanton of Florida State.  Clanton had three top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour last summer, taking 10^th at the Rocket Mortgage Championship, fifth at the Wyndham Championship and second at the John Deere Classic.

Tim Fleming, the PGA Director of Golf Operations at OCG&CC, said the club has a long history of supporting top amateur events dating back to the 1953 U.S. Amateur and including five Trans-Miss Championships and numerous Oklahoma Golf Association events. But this event along with the USGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship scheduled next spring represent the club stretching its wings again and Fleming said he would not be surprised if another event or two is not added to the calendar soon.

“We’re certainly proud of the product we have,” Fleming said, “The golf course is in tremendous condition. The job that Nathan (superintendent Nathan Neumann) and his crew do is just incredible.”

Fleming said the deep rough the golfers will encounter next week was actually grown up at the behest of the USGA for the event next May, as it would not be possible to get that much growth in the spring. Members won’t be thrilled between now and then and it will challenge the collegians who miss fairways.

Davis is looking forward to seeing how the top collegians handle the classic course.

“Being able to work with OCGCC to renovate the course and work to get the original design intent to fit the modern game as much as was possible was one of those unique opportunities that is hard to put into words.,” he said. “I really didn’t want it to end. Given Alister Mackenzie was also involved made it more special and interesting.”

And how will the top collegians fare in terms of scoring. That’s always dependent on wind, rough height, pin positions and other factors, but Davis said the men will have a challenge and that the course is ideal for the collegiate women.

“The one thing OCGCC doesn’t have is length, but it makes up for it to some extent with angles, requirements to be very precise if being aggressive, and greens that when fast and firm are tough to approach, tough to get up and down from around the greens, and tough to putt,” he said. “When the rough is even just a bit taller than normal it can be very difficult to have the distance control needed in approaching these greens.  Add some wind and it will test every part of the game.”