NCAA Men's National Championship updates: Auburn advances to match play as No. 2 seed
The quest for back-to-back national championships is ongoing for No. 1 Auburn men’s golf. Playing at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, here’s how the first four rounds have gone for the Tigers:
Round 1: -2
Round 2: -6
Round 3: -2
Round 4: -2
The Tigers are the only team to shoot under par in all four rounds of stroke play.
The top eight teams advancing to match play:
Arizona State -14
Auburn -12
Florida -9
Oklahoma State -1
Oklahoma E
Texas +5
Virginia +9
Ole Miss +11
Up next: Auburn will face Virginia in the match play quarterfinals on Tuesday morning. If the Tigers advance, they will face the winner of the Florida-Texas quarterfinal.
Auburn individual performances through all four rounds:
Jackson Koivun -6 (71, 70, 71, 70)
Brendan Valdes -1 (69, 70, 72, 76)
Josiah Gilbert E (71, 75, 74, 68)
Cayden Pope +4 (77, 69, 74, 72)
Carson Bacha +5 (75, 73, 69, 76)
Koivun finished T4 overall. That’s great news, as the Top 10 finish earns Koivun his final Accelerated point and locks up a PGA Tour card for the 20-year-old. Koivun plans to return to Auburn next season.
“For this team, it comes down to having a lot of dog in you and having confidence,” Tigers head coach Nick Clinard said heading into the NCAA championship. “Having that will to win is key. It’s hard to put a finger on the X-factor, but you have to have that belief that you’re not going to lose.”
The stroke play championship will run May 23-28. No team has won back-to-back national titles since Alabama did it in 2013 and 2014.
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Friday, Saturday and Sunday will consist of stroke play. After three rounds, the field will dwindle to 15 heading into Monday. After a fourth day of stroke play, the field will reduce to eight teams.
Those eight teams will play quarterfinal and semifinal match play situations on Tuesday, with the match play finals being held on Wednesday afternoon.
As a reminder, after four days of stroke play competition last year, the Tigers entered quarterfinal play as the No. 6 seed. The Tigers then defeated No. 3 Virginia in the quarterfinals, followed by No. 7 Ohio State in the semifinals, before defeating No. 5 Florida State in the finals.
The only immediate goal is to play good golf and finish inside the Top 15 after three rounds. Make it to Monday, then survive and advance.
This season, the Tigers have already faced 25 of their 29 NCAA Championship opponents and boast a 66-12-1 head-to-head record against them. Auburn has the most wins versus RV Georgia Tech (6), No. 16 Vanderbilt (6), No. 22 Georgia (5), No. 11 Texas A&M (5), No. 23 Tennessee (4), No. 24 Texas Tech (4) and Wake Forest (4).
