SMU Golf Advances To NCAA Championships
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SAN ANTONIO (SMU) – After battling for the lead for much of the day, the SMU Mustangs placed fourth at four-over par after the final round at the NCAA San Antonio Regionals at Briggs Ranch Golf Club on Saturday. With the top-five result, SMU earned a berth to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2005.
Sophomore Bryson Dechambeau was SMU’s top-finishing individual, tying for seventh at two-under par. Fellow sophomoresRyan Burgess and Austin Smotherman were SMU’s top two players on Saturday, with each carding two-over 74s in the final round. Smotherman posted three bogeys on holes 2-4, but rallied back with five birdies between holes 5-14.
Freshman Andrew Buchanan moved as high as eighth on the leaderboard after
starting out two-under through six holes, but he would eventually fall back to three-over for the round. earning him a 19th-place result. Burgess and senior Harry Higgs tied for 21st at three-over for the tournament.
No. 6 Georgia won the event by 13 strokes over Georgia State. No. 19 Vanderbilt took third, followed by SMU and No. 18 UCLA. TCU missed the top five by just two strokes, while No. 7 UCF was the highest-ranked team in the field to not advance, taking seventh. Georgia Southern, Charleston and USF rounded out the top 10. TCU’s Julien Brun won the individual title at 10-under par.
SMU was at nine-under par around the halfway point of the day, and led the tournament by as many as two strokes over both Georgia and Vanderbilt. SMU was two-under as a team through eight holes, but ended the day at 10-over.
The NCAA Championships will begin on May 23 at the Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. SMU took 22nd in its last NCAA Championships appearance at the Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md., in June of 2005. SMU competed at three straight NCAA Championships from 2003-05 and will be headed to its 16th all-time. SMU won the 1954 national championship and has seven total top-10 finishes.
