OSUMG: Kelly Surges in 2nd Round of NCAA Regionals
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
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(Image and tournament courtesy Ohio State Athletics web site. Tournament information and statistics courtesy of Marquette University and OSU athletics web sites. Event statistics and scoring courtesy of Golfstat)
Cliff Notes, Round 1
Tee-k and/or Will need to finish ahead of any player on a team that has not qualified (top 5) in order to move on to NCAA’s. After the first round, both players are at -2 to par, placing them in T-5th place. There is one golfer that is line ahead of them at -3, Grant Smith of South Dakota State. So far, so good.
With this format, the “placement” is very fluid regarding who moves on and who doesn’t. After the 1st round there are four teams that are at/near the cut line. This can change hole by hole. Players playing as Individuals come into play, so Tee-k and Will cannot focus on chasing down Grant Smith. This is a unique situation where Tee-k and Will need to go ‘pin-hunting from their first hole. It’s all about going low.
Now, on to Round 2:
After two rounds, the top five teams are: Florida, Illinois, Florida State, Arkansas and Idaho. So, how do Tee-k and Will compare to everyone else? Pretty well, as it turns out. Tee-k shot his 2nd consecutive -2 to sit at 4 under par, 2nd place in the
overall standings. More importantly, he is 4 shots clear of the rest of the field for an individual to qualify. Unfortunately, Will had a tough day (relatively speaking) and his chance of qualifying looks pretty bleak.
Tee-k
Teeing off on hole #10, Tee-k birdied two of his first three holes, bogeyed two of his next four, then birdied his 9th hole (#18) to make the turn at -1. He bogeyed #3 to drop to even par, then birdied two of his final six holes for his -2 70.
I think the key to this round was his birdie on the 12th hole, a 461 yard par-4. First, that is a long, “man-sized” par-4. Tee-k’s birdie was 1 of three birdies on the day (75 players). More tellingly, the was the 2nd toughest hole in round 2, averaging 4.41 strokes. In effect, Tee-k picked up 1.4 strokes on the field with his birdie. In an event where “every stroke counts”, this is significant.
The other significant story is that Tee-k has kept the ball in play. In 36 holes, he has only 5 bogeys, but has 9 birdies, the balance being pars. Not scoring worse than bogey is key to keeping your chances alive to advance.
Will
Will, also beginning on hole #10, played his front 9 in +1 37, then recorded 2 birdies in his first 4 holes on his back 9 to get to -1 for the round. He played his next three holes in +1 to sit at even par for the round and -2 overall; a good position to be in. Then things went to hell in a hand-basket on the long, 215 yard par-3 8th hole,
Will was staggered with a quadruple bogey 7. In effect, this hole erased any reasonable chance Will had of advancing. A par on this hole would have kept Will in the hunt to advance. He played 17 solid holes of even par golf, yet one hole was his undoing on the round. The 8th hole played the toughest to par of all the holes, playing to an average of a half stroke over par. In fact, it’s been the toughest hole for both rounds. That’s probably small consolation to Will.
I fell glad for Tee-k, he’s on the verge of advancing to the NCAA’s. I feel bad for Will; he played a solid round of golf was was undone by the course’s toughest hole…
As a reminder, this is a tense event for a lot of players. For team play, there is a bit of “slop” since
5 of 13 teams from each Region advance to the NCAA Championships. With Individual play, it more resembles
Thunderdome, except worse. In this case,
10 Individuals
plus low scorer from non-qualifying (outside top 5) team enter,
1 man leaves.
On to round 3 on Wednesday. This is it, folks…
Go Buckeyes!
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OSUMG: Kelly Surges in 2nd Round of NCAA Regionals appeared first on
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