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10:30PM WEDNESDAY, MAY 31

SUGAR GROVE, Ill. – In its first ever NCAA men’s golf match play national championship appearance, Oklahoma won its second national championship in program history with a 3-1-1 victory over Oregon, the defending champions, at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

“I had a good feeling (this) week. My wife and I had talked about this before we went to regionals that we aren’t the best putting team and at regionals, you got to be able to do somethings at the right time to advance through,” said Head Coach Ryan Hybl. “I told her I was hoping that this group was going to get a chance to shine. If they had an opportunity this week, they were going to do something crazy good.

“This has been our best individual year. We had five individual winners, which not a lot of teams can say. The firepower was there,” added Hybl.

The championship for Oklahoma was its first since 1989 at Oak Tree Country Club in Edmonds, Okla., a championship co-hosted with rival Oklahoma State. The Sooners lost in the quarterfinal round of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship.

Blaine Hale put the first point on the board, downing Oregon’s Norman Xiong 4&3 as he sank a birdie putt on the 15th green. Xiong had the early momentum in the match, winning the first hole and the early one-up advantage.

It wasn’t until the sixth that Hale clinched his first lead and never acquiesced, going three-up through 10.

In the second group, Max McGreevy followed in his fellow Sooners’ footsteps, winning 3&2 against Edwin Yi. After halving the first hole, McGreevy claimed the first and last advantage on No. 2 as the senior stood resolute over the Ducks’ sophomore.

However, after falling three-down on the fifth hole, Yi won the sixth and seventh to climb back within one. McGreevy responded and went four-up after 13 and kept his position until the match ended on the 16th.

Though the Sooners had the edge, Oregon did not go down without a fight. In the third match of the final, Wyndham Clark won the first hole and led during the front nine before Rylee Reinertson squared the match on the 11th.

With Clark regaining the lead on 12, Reinertson evened the match again on 14, lighting the fireworks over the last four holes as the duos split the next three holes to set up a winner take all 18th hole. Clark clinched the Ducks lone point, carding an eagle to end the match.

Though Grant Hirschman and Ryan Gronlund also teed off on the 18th all square with Hirschman battling back from a two-hole deficit with three holes left to play, the national champion was crowned during the final pairing between Oklahoma’s Brad Dalke and Oregon’s Sulman Raza.

Though Dalke quickly asserted himself as the match leader, going two-up through two, Dalke led the match one-up at the turn. However, Raza squared the match on No. 10 after hitting safely onto the green from the bunker to par the hole. Halving the 11th hole, Dalke reclaimed the lead on the 12th with a birdie putt to win the hole. The Sooner won the 14th and 15th to go three-up to set up a make or break hole for Raza on the 16th.

Despite falling short of the green on the 205-yard par 3, the Ducks’ redshirt senior and Eugene native chipped back onto the green from the surrounding fescue and saved par to extend the match after Dalke’s bogey.

Raza’s run would end on the 17th however as the tandem halved the hole to earn Oklahoma second national championship, it’s first since 1989.

During the post-match press conference, Hybl shared an anecdote from his alluded to a conversation with his wife about Dalke and the potential on the horizon.

“I make notes on my phone every once in a while, whenever I see good things. On February 16th I (wrote), when we were out at The Trails (Golf Club), I said ‘Dalk (Dalke) looks the best I’ve ever seen, he could take us the distance,” said a tearful Hybl. “He did that this week. It was a great week.”

The match play final marked the end of two weeks of competition at Rich Harvest Farms, the Home of the Huskies, in which 16,425 were in attendance. While 4,275 fans came out for the rain-soaked women’s championship, 12,150 showed for the sun-splashed men’s championship, including a tournament-best 3,250 fans during Saturday’s second round.

9:30PM TUESDAY, MAY 30

SUGAR GROVE, Ill. – Defending national champion Oregon will face Oklahoma in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf National Championship match after the Ducks and Sooners each won a pair of matches on Tuesday at Rich Harvest Farms.

No. 5 seed Oregon defeated Oklahoma State, 3-2, in the morning quarterfinals before downing No. 1 seed Vanderbilt, 3-2, in the afternoon semifinals. Oklahoma, the No. 2 seed, upended Baylor, 3-2, in the quarterfinals to open the day before topping third-seeded Illinois, 3-1-1, in the afternoon.

Making its fourth appearance in match play at the NCAA Championships, Oregon improved to 7-2 all-time with its two victories today.

“Wow, it’s an incredible feeling to be back here and to do it last year at the home course was amazing, at our home course,” said Oregon head coach Casey Martin. “But then to do it here in Chicago and trying to back it up, it’s hard to put into words, and I’m proud of the guys and how they’ve played all year, and then in particular how they battled to get here because we were way on the outs, and here we are. So it’s pretty cool.”

Norman Xiong opened the afternoon match against Vanderbilt with a 3 & 2 victory for the Ducks.  After Theo Humphrey recorded a 5 & 4 win in the fourth pairing to give the Commodores a point, Wyndham Clark scored a 4 & 3 victory to get Oregon within a point of the final.

John Augenstein pulled Vanderbilt back level with a 19-holes win as the match came down to the final pairing of the day between Sulman Raza and Matthias Schwab. Leading by one heading to the 18th, Raza posted a birdie to win the match 2-up and advance Oregon to the final.

In the morning quarterfinals, Oregon and Oklahoma State split the first four points in their match. Viktor Hovland won 2 & 1 for the Cowboys in the opening match. Zachary Olsen won the second point for Oklahoma State, 3 & 1, while Oregon posted points via Edwin Yi’s 1-up victory in the second pairing and Ryan Gronlund’s 2 & 1 win in the fourth twosome of the match. With the match tied, Raza completed a 2 & 1 victory in the last quarterfinal pairing to move the Dukes into the afternoon semifinals.

Oklahoma’s path to the final went through the crowd favorite Illinois in the afternoon semifinals. In the first pairing out, Blaine Hale put the Sooners in front with a 4 & 3 victory. Oklahoma was within a point of the final when Max McGreevy won the 17th hole in his pairing to claim a 2 & 1 win. The Sooners completed their semifinal triumph when Rylee Reinertson won the third pairing, 3 & 1, as he clinched with a win on the 17th.

“Well, obviously we’re really excited about what’s going on,” said Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl. “It’s been a great week for us. We’ve been playing good golf all week long, and our guys did something really special this morning, whenever we were playing against Baylor. We fought hard and got back into all the matches and ended up getting three points, one closing it out on the 19th hole, which was really special.”

In the opening match of the day, Oklahoma trailed Baylor in all five matches early in the round before coming back to win, 3-2. The Bears won the first two points as Cooper Dossey was a 1-up winner in the opening pairing and Braden Bailey won 2 & 1 in the second. The Sooner stormed back in the final three pairings to take the match.

Reinertson was a 1-up winner, Grant Hirschman trailed by as many as three before coming back to take his match, 1-up, with an eagle on the 18th. In the final pairing, Baylor’s Matthew Perrine forced a 19th hole after chipping in for birdie on 18, but Brad Dalke won the match for Oklahoma with a par on the 19th.

The Sooners are making their second all-time appearance in the NCAA Championships match play, they fell to Texas last year in the quarterfinals.

“We’re excited about tomorrow, the challenges, and trying to soak all this up at the same time, and hopefully we’re going to go play some good golf tomorrow,” said Hybl.

In the other two morning quarterfinals, Illinois was a 3-1-1 winner over Southern California while Vanderbilt rallied for a 3-2 win over UNLV.

Live coverage on Golf Channel of Wednesday’s final will begin with Golf Central Pre Game beginning at 12:30 p.m., followed by live coverage of the championship match at 3 p.m. CT.

SOURCE: NCAA, Golf Channel

Team Match Play, Semifinal Match Results

• Oregon defeated Vanderbilt       3-2
• Oklahoma defeated Illinois         3-1-1

Quarterfinals, May 30

• No. 1 Vanderbilt def. No. 8 UNLV, 3-2
• No. 2 Oklahoma def. No. 7 Baylor, 3-2
• No. 3 Illinois def. No. 6 Southern California, 3-1-1
• No. 5 Oregon def. No. 4 Oklahoma State, 3-2

Championship Match, May 31

• Oregon vs. Oklahoma, 2:10 p.m. CT

Golf Channel Wednesday / NCAA Team Championship Schedule (all times CT)

• Golf Central Pre Game                12:30-3 p.m. CT
• Championship Match                  3-7 p.m. CT
• Golf Central                                  7-8 p.m. CT

12:50PM TUESDAY, MAY 30

Illinois defeated Southern Cal 3-1-1 to advance to the semifinals of the NCAA men’s golf championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

The Illini will face Oklahoma in the semifinal match, which starts at 1:30 p.m.

The defending champion Oregon Ducks will tee off against Vanderbilt at 2:20 p.m., rounding out the NCAA final four.

Vanderbilt bested UNLV, Oregon defeated Oklahoma State and Oklahoma beat Baylor in the morning rounds.

Semifinal Match-Ups

Oklahoma Vs. Illinois

• Blaine Hale Vs. Edoardo Lipparelli
• Max McGreevy Vs. Gionvanni Tadiotto
• Rylee Reinertson Vs. Michael Feagles
• Grant Hirschman Vs. Nick Hardy
• Brad Dalke Vs. Dylan Meyer

10PM MONDAY, MAY 29

Vanderbilt is the top seed and Illinois is No. 3 of the eight teams that advanced to quarterfinals match play after a tough, windy grind on Memorial Day at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

Quarterfinal play starts at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Ole Miss’s Braden Thornberry won the DI Men’s Golf Individual National Championship on Monday, finishing the game off with a birdie on hole 18, to finish 11-under in the tournament.

Illinois was in free fall for much of the day due in large part of super-difficult windy conditions, but rallied in the final holes to finish third. The Illini will face off against Southern California in match play tomorrow.

The winner and champion of both the women’s and men’s championships might be Rich Harvest Farms, a course that no one seems to have completely figured out over almost two weeks of play. Vanderbuilt might be the one exception — the only team to finish under par in stroke play.

Golf Channel Notes and Quotes

NCAA Men’s Golf Championships

• Individual National Championship
• Monday, May 29, 2017
• Rich Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Illinois

Golf Channel / NCAA Tuesday airtimes:

• Quarterfinals – Team Match Play: 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CST
• Semifinals – Team Match Play: 3-7 p.m. CST

Schools advancing to team match play quarterfinals include:

• 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

Full information on teams advancing to match play, scores and results can be found at www.GolfChannel.com/college

On the final round of individual stroke play”

• Curt Byrum – “How many times are we going to see disasters at 17. This hole has just been a nightmare today.”
• Lanny Wadkins – “Red figures for today is just an incredible score today.”
• Wadkins – “Today Rich Harvest Farms won, but it is going to fun now going into match play on Tuesday. All of these teams playing each other, but you’ve only got to beat the guy you are playing against. A great course for match play.”

On Braden Thornberry, 2017 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship Individual National Champion at 11-under par (1-par 71 on Monday)

• Billy Ray Brown – “His life will change after this. This is going to be a time of his life that he certainly will enjoy. To win a national title as an individual is huge.”
• Brown – “He will be on notice and he will be on stage each and every week as he goes on in his amateur career.”
• Wadkins – “They are very proud of their teammate. They are going to pull as hard for him today as if they had been doing it themselves. Its family, and a member of their family just had a huge day.”

Braden Thornberry speaking with Golf Channel’s Billy Ray Brown following his victory

• Braden Thornberry – “It means a lot to be the champion. As far as the team, we knew we were going to have a special year when we started off. We didn’t finish worse than second in the fall, and this spring we had some more wins. We knew it was going to be a special year and we weren’t surprised at all.”

On Vanderbilt advancing to team match play as the top seed

• Wadkins – “Vanderbilt is far and away the strongest team. They did not let this golf course get in their head today. They went out and performed very well on this golf course. Everyone else got beat up on this golf course. They are still positive about the golf course going in to tomorrow. They also know they just wiped the floor with everybody else today. All of the other teams are trying to regroup.”

On Illinois advancing to match play

• Wadkins – “The course played tough, the conditions were difficult, but I still expected Illinois to handle it better than they did today. To me they were the surprise of the day that they went backwards as far as they did.”

4:48PM FRIDAY

They sent golfers back out, and frankly, it was a travesty. The skies opened up, and several players had to go through a bone-soaking deluge.

Shots dropped harder and faster than the rain.

As of 4:50 p.m. Friday, Illinois dropped two shots and is tied for sixth. Auburn, the 20th seed, is done for the day and in the driver’s seat. If they make the teams go out in this again, everyone out on the course is going to lose.

Some photos in the gallery above.

3:10 PM FRIDAY UPDATE

If the rain keeps up for 40 days and 40 nights — like Noah’s arc or the NCAA women’s golf championships — the University of Illinois would make the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s golf championships at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

As of 3:10 p.m. Friday (May 26, 2017), play was called due to rain. Baylor leads at 9 under after seven holes. Auburn finished the day at 6 under — a score that could hold up if players have to go back out and fight the elements later this afternoon. Vanderbuilt is tied for second after eight holes.

The Illini are 4 under after five holes, tied with Oregon. Illinois’ Michael Feagles is 3 under after seven holes.

It’s just been announced that play will resume around 4 p.m. CST.

Team Leaderboard as of 3:20 PM Friday

Individual Leaderboard