SMU Golf In 5th Place At NCAA Championships
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HUTCHINSON, Kan. (SMU) – Led by three under-par scores from sophomores, the SMU Mustangs finished Saturday in fifth place on the leaderboard at the NCAA Championships at the Prairie Dunes Country Club. SMU is one of 15 teams that did not begin its second round after weather delays on Friday forced the top 15 seeds to wait until Saturday to begin play.
Austin Smotherman gave SMU its low score of the round, posting a four-under 66 with five birdies, including three straight from holes 12 through 14. Smotherman was tied for the individual lead for a portion of the day after carding his career-low round. and is currently in fifth. Classmates Ryan Burgess (two-under) and Bryson Dechambeau (one-under) both posted scores in the red to put SMU in good position heading into its second round. Freshman Andrew Buchanan started the round at three-over through two holes, but fought back to finish at just two-over for the day.
“It was a very solid start for us, especially for five guys making their NCAA debut,” SMU head coach Josh Gregory said. “Ryan and Austin were huge for us today and Andrew was great after his rough start. Bryson was rock solid for us as always. We put ourselves in great position and can’t wait to get after it tomorrow.”
The top eight teams after three rounds of stroke play will advance to the match play portion of the event, which will begin Tuesday. SMU is one of just 11 teams in the 30-team field that is under par going into
Sunday. SMU is seven strokes out of the lead and just three shots behind the second-place teams, while sitting ahead of seven top-10 teams in the standings.
No. 3 Stanford leads the tournament at 12-under, followed by South Carolina and defending-champion No. 1 Alabama. No. 23 Auburn is in fourth, followed by SMU. No. 16 LSU, No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 14 Oklahoma round out the top eight teams, with Iowa State, No. 21 UCLA and No. 4 Georgia Tech also under par.
Six teams completed two rounds of play on Saturday, while some had to walk off the course early due to impeding darkness. 15 teams, including SMU, did not begin their second rounds.
SMU will tee off for its second round tomorrow at 7:50 a.m. CT grouped with Oregon and South Carolina.
