It's NCAA Men's Regional Week: Golfweek And Golfstat Are Your Friends

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With the men's NCAA Division I regionals getting underway, there is, of course, only one place to go and that's the hub of all things college golf: Golfweek. The firm of Romine, Casey and Ringler will have the lowdown. 

Lance Ringler noted this in his handy primer on the various regions and players to keep an eye on, especially for conspiracy theorists who grumble about teams hosting a regional (count me in!):

Teams that have hosted a regional are 28 of 38 (73.6 percent) in advancing to the NCAA finals.

  • Teams that are hosting a regional and seeded within the top 5 are 23 of 26 (88.5 percent) in advancing to the NCAA finals.

  • Teams that are hosting a regional and seeded outside the top 5 are 5 of 11 (45.4 percent) in advancing to the NCAA finals.

For scores, you MUST download the updated and modernized Golfstat app, available for both iPhone and Android. The desktop options are great too.

Virus, Schmirus: How About Those Baylor Women!

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Golfweek's Beth Ann Nichols reports on the impressive fortitude of the Baylor women's golf team advancing to the NCAA Championships via the Austin regional.

This, despite losing a player in final round play to a bizarre virus that swept the region, while another played sick.

East Carolina was forced to forfeit and health officials have no answers as to what caused the mystery virus to spread at University of Texas Golf Club.

Video: Thornberry Hits Field Goal Shot In Front Of Full House

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This is a remarkable shot on three levels:

A) Hitting a football (well) with a golf club is quite difficult without hurting yourself.

B) Doing so in front of a full stadium with your collegiate peers is no easy bargain.

C) Having the audacity to pull off a little Chi Chi sword-return-to-its-sheathing.

Nicely done NCAA men's individual champ and recent Walker Cupper Braden Thornberry pulling this off at halftime of the Ole Miss home loss to LSU (Kevin Casey with more details here at Golfweek.com):

 

"Desimone battles cancer and fights for Cal Golf"

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Ryan Lavner of GolfChannel.com catches up with longtime Cal golf coach Steve Desimone who explains why he left coaching when he did, what's done to fight cancer, and his effort to endow the golf program.

Given Cal's propensity to drop men's sports programs, the endowment is probably a great idea. Even better is hear Desimone has battled cancer successfully.

When Desimone started at Cal, he had three goals: win a national title; create a facility for the team; and ensure Cal Golf in perpetuity through an endowment. He accomplished the first two objectives. He and the committee hoped to finish the last part before he retired, but the cancer diagnosis understandably derailed their progress.
They’re roughly $2.5 million short of their $12 million endowment goal, at which point the interest would kick in enough to fully fund the program. That would take some of the fundraising pressure off Chun and the committee, but more importantly it would ensure that the program – that Desimone’s life’s work – remains untouched.

It’s the final task of Desimone’s storied Cal career, and he has worn himself down trying to finish it. He wants closure.

Parsons Touts Equality Of His College Golf Sponsorship Efforts

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Alana Johnson reports for Golf.com on PXG announcing partnerships with six universities to provide 10 custom-fit sets to the men's and women's programs to divy up (*story incorrectly stated).

Given that five people start for a college team, this will leave some players out of the free equipment (first) world, but that didn't stop PXG's Bob Parson's from turning what might be a negative into a positive (verbal).

In a press release, PXG's founder Bob Parsons touted the company's commitment to delivering equal support to golfers within the University Program.

"It is beyond me that the men's and women's golf teams are frequently afforded different levels of support. At PXG, we make golf clubs for golfers. Period," said Parsons. "The schools we choose to partner with will receive equal sponsorship for both the men's and women's teams."

It's certainly admirable that Parsons is taking care of women's programs as equally as the men. But also fascinating to see a company suggesting the privilege of free gear has somehow been skewed by gender to this point. I certainly could see that at smaller programs, but from everything I've seen the larger women's programs are well taken care of. Anyone hear differently?

Analysis: NCAA, Golf Channel Extend Through 2029

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I'm a little surprised there has not been more sports media world reaction to the NCAA locking in the golf championships with Golf Channel through 2029.

Given the constant chatter about the demise of pay cable and possibilties of streaming, the NCAA chose not to go down that latter path (there had been rumblings!).

Granted, this is not the NBA or NFL, but most rights deals are very closely watched and at least in the golf world, this was a potential content for CBS Sports Network or the PGA Tour's possible entry into the space. The length of the deal is also eye-opening given the supposed uncertainty of rights deals and the difficulty in trying to get the NCAA back on television (where it has since thrived).

From Brentley Romine's Golfweek report:

“This is an important day for NCAA golf, our student-athletes, coaches and fans,” said Joni Comstock, NCAA senior vice president of championships. “The partnership with Golf Channel has resulted in live broadcast of several milestone moments in both the men’s and women’s championships over the last several years, and we anticipate more exciting moments in the years ahead. Providing access and a media platform that gives our golf student-athletes more visibility and news coverage shows unified support for the game. This also allows others the opportunity to see the outstanding play of our student-athletes who excel in the classroom and on the course.”

Given the expenditure by Golf Channel on the production side, I'd also note this deal is another huge victory for team match play as a format. Not that a boost was given, but since the NCAA switched to this format and memorable finishes have ensued, it's another hint that television has fully embraced a format beyond stroke play.

Roundup: Oklahoma Edges Oregon In Another NCAA Thriller

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While the greens appeared to confound even the last two teams standing, the 2017 NCAA Men's Division I final and its match play format proved compelling again. Oklahoma edged Oregon in a final that, not surprisingly, came down to the final match between last year's U.S. Amateur runner-up and the same player who carried Oregon to the 2016 title.

Beth Ann Baldry at Golfweek with the Sooners story and the tragedy that befell coach Ryan Hybl and wife Rebecca earlier in the season.  

Brentley Romine with the key match details where Oregon put up a great fight.

Ryan Lavner with Sooner anchor Brad Dalke's story. Recruited by OU since he was 12 and a commit by 7th grade, he fulfilled a dream come true and did it with a mix of clutch shotmaking and class in Wednesday's finale.

Lance Ringler looks back on two weeks at Rich Harvest Farms and an NCAA season that saw powerhouses Arizona State and Oklahoma winning titles.

The Golf Channel highlights:

Some images of the winners: 

Boomer! SOONER! 🏆 #NCAAGolf

A post shared by Golf Channel (@golfchannel) on May 31, 2017 at 6:01pm PDT

NCAA Men's Final Set: Oklahoma V. Oregon

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The passion of match play has once again made both men's and women's NCAA viewing a real joy for those of us who can have a television on all day. A big tip of the cap to Brandt Packer's Golf Channel crew for all of the great reaction shots, aerial footage and NCAA coverage.

How good was Tuesday's action?

The Nike Star Trek line sported by Oregon, Vanderbilt and others is actually growing on me.

Then again, it helps to see the clothes in school colors instead of the Best Pastels of Key West.

While the Ducks are the defending champs, Oregon's unlikely ascension to the final versus Oklahoma comes after they barely made the team match play portion of the proceedings. Brentley Romine with the Golfweek.com roundup of Oregon defeating Vanderbilt 3-2 and Oklahoma defeating home state hosts Illinois 3½ - 1½ to deprive us of a Pac-12 v. Big 10 match.

Golf Central's highlights of Oregon's win.

And highlights of OU's win over Illinois.

Lance Ringler previews the final match, including the potential decider between each teams' stars:

Match 5: No. 98 Brad Dalke (Oklahoma) vs. No. 366 Sulman Raza (Oregon), 3:50 p.m. ET

Kevin Casey at Golfweek profiles Raza, star of last year's championship match who has struggled as a senior.

And Beth Ann Nichols tells us more about Dalke, who was a finalist in last summer's U.S. Amateur and whose family has incredible ties to OU athletics.

Wednesday's final coverage goes like this on Golf Channel Wednesday:

Golf Central Pre Game        1:30-4 p.m. ET
Championship Match           4-8 p.m. ET
Golf Central                          8-9 p.m. ET

Ole Miss' Thornberry Wins NCAA Individual Title, Eight Teams Set

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Fittingly, the 2017 NCAA men's individual title was captured by a five-time winner this season who had the season's lowest scoring average.

Beth Ann Nichols of Golfweek.com on Braden Thornberry, whose unorthodox move scared off a lot of coaches but who used it to edge Arkansas freshman Mason Overstreet for the victory.

Alabama coach Jay Seawell was recruiting at the Future Masters in Dothan, Ala., when someone suggested he go watch this kid from Mississippi. Seawell took a look at 11-year-old Braden Thornberry, noted the uniqueness of his golf swing and thought “that probably won’t last.”

“Boy were a lot of people wrong,” said Seawell. “He’s the real deal.”

The winning putt:

 

#HottyToddy!!! @olemissathletics' @tberrygolf is the #NCAAGolf Men's Individual Champion!

A post shared by Golf Channel (@golfchannel) on May 29, 2017 at 6:05pm PDT

 

The low eight teams from the team stroke play/individual national championship advance to match-play competition starting Tuesday, and as Kevin Casey writes for Golfweek.com, it was a grind for nearly all due to wind, pressure and a tough golf course.
 
The final eight, with a full roundup from Golfweek's Lance Ringer (including predictions and matchups):

Vanderbilt
Oklahoma
Illinois
Oklahoma State
Oregon
Southern California
Baylor
UNLV

Quarterfinal Matchups:

Vanderbilt vs. UNLV
Oklahoma vs. Baylor
Illinois vs. Southern California
Oklahoma State vs. Oregon

Golf Channel / NCAA Tuesday airtimes:

Quarterfinals – Team Match Play       11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET
Semifinals – Team Match Play           4-8 p.m. ET

ASU's Vaughn Wins Women's NCAA's, Kent State Makes Team Match Play For First Time

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The crowning of an individual champion and narrowing of the team portion to eight teams proved unusually exciting (again) Monday, with ASU senior Monica Vaughn winning the individual title while upstart Kent State was one of eight teams to get to match play. The contrast in emotions with the weekly drumbeat of pro golf was noticeable, and the match play hasn't even begun!

For ASU's Vaughn, Kevin Casey writes for Golfweek.com how the win came after an early stumble to seemingly doom her chances. So much so that Vaughn and coach Missy Farr-Kaye were not Golfstat obsessing on purpose.

It wasn’t until the group finished out and Vaughn’s teammates came running toward her that she realized she had won. And then the tears flowed – after all, Vaughn is a senior and a cornerstone of the program.

The veteran had been on fire entering the NCAA Championship, finishing top-3 in four of her previous five events – including a win at the NCAA Lubbock Regional. But after 23 straight NCAA Championship appearances, Arizona State failed to make the field in 2015 or 2016.

While Vaughn finished solo fifth as an individual at the 2015 tournament, the back-to-back team misses left a mark.

So did the 2-footer for par that lipped out on the fifth hole (her 14th) on Monday. The devastating bogey dropped her to 3 over for the tournament, and four back. Vaughn, who started the day two back of Kupcho, thought she put herself out of the individual race.

Beth Ann Nichols on the fine play of two Ohio programs, including Ohio State and Kent State.

Two Ohio-based teams, well-versed in brutal weather and tough tracks, made history at Rich Harvest Farms, qualifying for match play for the first time in school history.

“I just told the team I believe in them,” said Hession. “They’re as good as any team out there.”

Hession’s Buckeyes will face Southern California in the quarterfinals of match play on Tuesday while Kent State squares off against top-seeded Northwestern. Kent State ranks 16th in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, the same ranking Stanford had when the Cardinal won in 2015. Last year’s victorious Washington squad was No. 13.

Golfweek Staff's preview of the quarterfinal team matches.

Golf Channel, which begins Tuesday team match coverage at 11 am ET, had this wrap of Monday's best shots:

Artificial Surface Tee Gets Used At NCAA Championships...

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The NCAA's plan to play men's and women's Division I finals at the same course is undoubtedly making their venue option list very short. And as Andy Johnson notes at FriedEgg.co, you can't fault them for going to a place like Rich Harvest Farms, which has generously opened its doors to Solheim Cups, Western Amateurs and more. But the course that was once ridiculously ranked by Golf Digest's panel only to suffer a fall, still has many wondering why Jerry Rich's design is even viewed as top 100 worthy. 

Things aren't off to the best start at Rich Harvest Farms, with a weather delay leading to a shortened event and an artificial surface tee box getting put into play.

Saturday's nasty weather wasn't Rich's fault, especially since superintendent Jeff VerCautren did all he could to have the course ready to take on an inch of rain (as it did for Saturday's women's D1 round two). Play was still cancelled despite beautiful afternoon conditions. Lance Ringler at Golfweek.com explains what went into the thinking behind cancelling the round and shortening the women's stroke play portion of the proceedings.

More disconcerting though was the Janet Lindsay's decision, forced by wind forecasts, to use an artificial surface tee that was difficult for players to actually penetrate with tees.

Brentley Romine reports for Golfweek.com.

“I thought to myself, some kids probably have never hit off a mat in their whole life,” said Ohio State head coach Therese Hession.

The mat made it difficult for players to put their own tees at proper heights. Some players used mini tees provided by officials, but even those weren’t suitable for everyone. One player grew tired of attempting, threw her tee on the ground and hit hybrid off the deck. Most every player hit some sort of hybrid on the hole on Friday.

“I hit a hybrid off the tee, and the tee wouldn’t go down,” Baylor’s Amy Lee said. “… I was kind of afraid of popping it up in the air. (The tee) was probably triple the height of what I normally put it.”

NCAA Regional Roundup And Madness: Jacksonville Player Drops Ball In Water By Accident, Strips Down To Help Team

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You know this blogging thing yields some strange stories, and in reading about the NCAA men's regionals I'm not sure it gets any more peculiar than the plight of Jacksonville's David Wicks who...oh let GolfChannel.com's Ryan Lavner explain.

He crouched on a steep bank to read his putt, but as he stood up and reached for the ball in his right front pocket, he dropped it.

Of course, it didn’t just fall straight down. No, it kicked off the back of his shoe, rolled off the green, around a bulkhead, and after a brief chase he watched it tumble into the water on the left side of the green.

“I looked at my playing partners, they looked at me, and there was that awkward silence where we both knew it’d be a penalty,” Wicks said by phone Wednesday night.

Said his coach, Mike Blackburn: “Just a stroke of bad luck.”

Here was Wicks’ predicament: He needed to find his original ball or he would be assessed a two-shot penalty, under Rule 16-1. In contention both in the team and individual race, Wicks said, “I was always going to go in. If I hadn’t gone in and we’d lost by a shot, the nine-hour drive back I would have been thinking about it the whole time. At least I know now.”

Here is the video of Wicks making the desperate search as his playing partners look on in silence.

 

 

Jacksonville made it through for the first time ever in a playoff over Northwestern, as Brentley Romine notes in Golfweek's roundup of that wild and wacky region.

Oklahoma State edged Texas in the Austin regional, Romine notes in this roundup.

UCF advanced in a region that also saw Lipscomb make it to the finals.

As Golfweek's Kevin Casey reports, Oklahoma and Stanford headline the west region qualifiers that also included Pepperdine.

Go Waves!

The NCAA finals start Sunday for the women and a week later for the men.