Wednesday, May 17
Norman, Okla.
All Day
Colorado
vs
Third Round
Jack Holland's 67 was CU;s best score in the final round and led the Buffs into the NCAA Finals.
Photo by: Brent DePaepe/CU Athletics
Golfers Finish Third At Central/Norman Regional; Advance to NCAA Finals
May 17, 2023 | Men's Golf
Buffaloes match Pac-12 Conference finish in continuing great late season play
NORMAN, Okla. — The University of Colorado men's golf team finished what it started here Wednesday but it wasn't without a few tense moments late as the Buffaloes finished third in the NCAA Central/Norman Regional and will advance to the NCAA Championship Finals in nine days.
The top five teams moved on to the Finals, with No. 17 Alabama emerging on top with a 28-under 836 team score, edging host and No. 9 Oklahoma (25-under 839). They were in the same threesome and the first to finish, along with No. 5 Texas Tech closing with an 842 total and were third at that time.
The next threesome had a classic regional battle, three teams vying for the last two spots – the Buffaloes, Duke and North Florida – and all were within a stroke of each other over the course of the final three holes of the round. The four scorers for CU played the last five holes at 6-under (seven birdies, one bogey), holding off a charging Duke while keeping UNF at bay.
Colorado sophomore Justin Biwer made a key birdie from two feet out on the 600-yard, par-5 8th hole that put the Buffs ahead by one on the scoreboard. Freshman Hunter Swanson then nailed a birdie on the 435-yard, par-4 9th to clinch a finals berth, help CU to a 12-under 276 third round score, its best round ever in a regional, and a 23-under 841 finally tally that enabled the Buffs to jump Texas Tech into third place.
And scoring well on No. 9 was no easy task, as it played the fifth-toughest here this week; the players that scored for CU made three pars along with Swanson's birdie, and CU's fifth-man, sophomore Tucker Clark, also birdied the hole.
It was enough to hold off Duke, as the Blue Devils claimed the fifth (843 score) and the final qualifying spot thanks to three birdies on No. 9, while North Florida could only muster a single birdie that was wiped out by a bogey and finished with an 844 count. All three had their players answer the final round challenge – CU's fifth score that didn't count was a 72, while Duke and UNF tossed out 73s.
"I'm incredibly proud of the team, especially since this was probably the closest regional from first to sixth place that I've ever seen," head coach Roy Edwards said. "I have so many positive and proud things I have to say about the team. We went to a southern golf course hosted by a southern school, with mostly southern teams. It says a lot about the team's overall competitiveness and their fight.
Less than a month ago, the Buffs finished a disappointing 11th in BYU's Cougar Classic. But since, CU spent all four rounds in the top three, including leading at several junctures, in the Pac-12 Championship before finishing third, and were never out of the top five here from the get-go.
"BYU was interesting because we didn't play well at all," Edwards recalled. "It wasn't because of a lack of effort, and everyone's attitudes were good. But the last six or seven weeks, everybody was dedicated to really working on their short games, and it paid off at Stanford and was really the difference this week. It was not a fluke that we beat some really good teams and nearly won the tournament."
CU for the most part avoided big numbers in both meets, something Edwards calls the "jumbo" stat – the percentage of holes over bogey compared to rounds played. Between the conference championship and regional, the Buffs had just 13 out of 702 holes worse than a bogey, with only four of those figuring in team scoring.
"That's an incredible stat and is a testament to the team's focus, course management and short game," Edwards noted."
The three-team battle for the final two spots was nothing short of wild, Edwards said.
"Down the stretch was unbelievable, a lot of fireworks but a lot of great golf -- it was nuts – Duke and North Florida were chipping in and making long putts, but we were making putts too," he said.
Swanson recorded his second 3-under 69 here to go with his first round effort, and finished with a 6-under 210 total on the 7,452-yard, par-72 Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club course layout. He had four birdies and 13 pars Wednesday, and finished with the most subpar holes (12, including an eagle) by a Buffalo here this week. It was his second subpar tournament of his collegiate career and the first time he led CU in an event this season.
He also became the fourth freshman finish atop the CU leaderboard in an NCAA regional. He joined Knut Ekjord (1995), Matthew Zions (1999) and Jeremy Paul (2014). In tying for 11th, it is the highest finish by a CU freshman in a regional and his 6-under par effort is the first subpar score and bested Ekjord's previous low tally of 1-over 217. Ekjord also had the former highest finish when he tied for 14th.
"My round felt pretty good overall today," Swanson said. "I had a bad three-putt (on No. 3, his only bogey), but also made some very clutch par putts that felt good, especially on hole 11 and hole 4.
"But the feeling of that birdie on the last hole (No. 9) was unmatched," he continued. "Not only of how much it helped me and my team, but with what was at stake, I think that was the biggest putt I've made in my entire life. That was such a surreal experience, and it's hard to describe. It was just an unbelievable and excellent experience, and I'm so proud to be a part of this team. I'm so pumped and can't wait for the finals, especially only being a freshman."
The top five teams moved on to the Finals, with No. 17 Alabama emerging on top with a 28-under 836 team score, edging host and No. 9 Oklahoma (25-under 839). They were in the same threesome and the first to finish, along with No. 5 Texas Tech closing with an 842 total and were third at that time.
The next threesome had a classic regional battle, three teams vying for the last two spots – the Buffaloes, Duke and North Florida – and all were within a stroke of each other over the course of the final three holes of the round. The four scorers for CU played the last five holes at 6-under (seven birdies, one bogey), holding off a charging Duke while keeping UNF at bay.
Colorado sophomore Justin Biwer made a key birdie from two feet out on the 600-yard, par-5 8th hole that put the Buffs ahead by one on the scoreboard. Freshman Hunter Swanson then nailed a birdie on the 435-yard, par-4 9th to clinch a finals berth, help CU to a 12-under 276 third round score, its best round ever in a regional, and a 23-under 841 finally tally that enabled the Buffs to jump Texas Tech into third place.
And scoring well on No. 9 was no easy task, as it played the fifth-toughest here this week; the players that scored for CU made three pars along with Swanson's birdie, and CU's fifth-man, sophomore Tucker Clark, also birdied the hole.
It was enough to hold off Duke, as the Blue Devils claimed the fifth (843 score) and the final qualifying spot thanks to three birdies on No. 9, while North Florida could only muster a single birdie that was wiped out by a bogey and finished with an 844 count. All three had their players answer the final round challenge – CU's fifth score that didn't count was a 72, while Duke and UNF tossed out 73s.
"I'm incredibly proud of the team, especially since this was probably the closest regional from first to sixth place that I've ever seen," head coach Roy Edwards said. "I have so many positive and proud things I have to say about the team. We went to a southern golf course hosted by a southern school, with mostly southern teams. It says a lot about the team's overall competitiveness and their fight.
Less than a month ago, the Buffs finished a disappointing 11th in BYU's Cougar Classic. But since, CU spent all four rounds in the top three, including leading at several junctures, in the Pac-12 Championship before finishing third, and were never out of the top five here from the get-go.
"BYU was interesting because we didn't play well at all," Edwards recalled. "It wasn't because of a lack of effort, and everyone's attitudes were good. But the last six or seven weeks, everybody was dedicated to really working on their short games, and it paid off at Stanford and was really the difference this week. It was not a fluke that we beat some really good teams and nearly won the tournament."
CU for the most part avoided big numbers in both meets, something Edwards calls the "jumbo" stat – the percentage of holes over bogey compared to rounds played. Between the conference championship and regional, the Buffs had just 13 out of 702 holes worse than a bogey, with only four of those figuring in team scoring.
"That's an incredible stat and is a testament to the team's focus, course management and short game," Edwards noted."
The three-team battle for the final two spots was nothing short of wild, Edwards said.
"Down the stretch was unbelievable, a lot of fireworks but a lot of great golf -- it was nuts – Duke and North Florida were chipping in and making long putts, but we were making putts too," he said.
Swanson recorded his second 3-under 69 here to go with his first round effort, and finished with a 6-under 210 total on the 7,452-yard, par-72 Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club course layout. He had four birdies and 13 pars Wednesday, and finished with the most subpar holes (12, including an eagle) by a Buffalo here this week. It was his second subpar tournament of his collegiate career and the first time he led CU in an event this season.
He also became the fourth freshman finish atop the CU leaderboard in an NCAA regional. He joined Knut Ekjord (1995), Matthew Zions (1999) and Jeremy Paul (2014). In tying for 11th, it is the highest finish by a CU freshman in a regional and his 6-under par effort is the first subpar score and bested Ekjord's previous low tally of 1-over 217. Ekjord also had the former highest finish when he tied for 14th.
"My round felt pretty good overall today," Swanson said. "I had a bad three-putt (on No. 3, his only bogey), but also made some very clutch par putts that felt good, especially on hole 11 and hole 4.
"But the feeling of that birdie on the last hole (No. 9) was unmatched," he continued. "Not only of how much it helped me and my team, but with what was at stake, I think that was the biggest putt I've made in my entire life. That was such a surreal experience, and it's hard to describe. It was just an unbelievable and excellent experience, and I'm so proud to be a part of this team. I'm so pumped and can't wait for the finals, especially only being a freshman."
Sophomore Jack Holland recorded CU's best score in the final round, a 5-under 67, which tied for the third-best score Wednesday behind a pair of 66s. That gave him a 5-under 211 performance for the week, which tied him for 16th. He led the Buffs with six birdies in the last round, along with 11 pars and a single bogey.
"I just felt super relaxed out there," Holland said of his round. "I knew I had good golf in me, I just had to believe in myself and do my part for the team. It feels great shooting the score I did, but it feels even better that the whole team played well and did their part to make it to finals."
Biwer also tied for 16th after he fashioned a final round 2-under 70 for a 5-under 211 scorecard. He was his usual consistent self, with four birdies and 12 pars on the day, with his last bird on No. 8 coming after his second and last bogey, the birdie as aforementioned pivotal to CU advancing to the finals.
Sophomore Dylan McDermott, CU's stroke average leader, had his best round of the event as he finished with a 2-under 70, which brought him back down to an even-216 overall and a tie for 39th. He had an eagle, three birdies and 11 pars with three bogeys to wrap things here, and it enabled him to have his first even-par 54-hole event as a Buff after 14 subpar efforts – as well as giving him his 25th subpar round of the season, a school record as he broke a tie with Yannik Paul (24 in '17-18).
Clark also tied for 39th, closing here with an even-par 72 and the 216 overall score; he had two birdies and 14 pars, as he finished each side with a birdie. While his score Wednesday didn't count toward the team total, the birdie on No. 9 did provide some margin of comfort. He rebounded from a rough first round 77 and had all 10 of his birdies on his last 38 holes, with just three bogeys in that span.
For the week, Biwer, Clark, Holland and McDermott all had 37 pars, tying for the eighth-most in the field (Swanson had 35); Biwer, Holland and Swanson had 11 birdies each with Clark scoring 10 and McDermott seven. The Buffs never had to count a score worse than a bogey (and had just three double bogeys all week), and Colorado was the only team in the final round not to have a player shoot any higher than a bogey.
It also was just the second time in school history that all five players in a 54-hole tournament finished with scores of par or better; the other was the 2021 Mark Simpson-CU Invitational, when all five designated scorers were under par.
"Jack's round today was an all-timer for the CU record books, Hunter was our low guy overall and he played awesome. I don't think anyone in the world loves golf more than Hunter. Justin was a rock all week, Dylan may not have had his best stuff but his round today was monstrous, and Tucker's comeback from the first round was tremendous and was in the mix to count if needed."
Edwards also wanted to make specific mention of two other key team members on the trip.
"In my opinion, there's no better assistant coach in the country than Derek Tolan," Edwards said. "The guys really trust him, and he has so much knowledge to pass on that gives them so much confidence. He's just been an amazing asset our program, and being an alum, his love for the Buffs is second-to-none.
"And Jack Hughes was in a tough spot as our sub, having to be ready to play perhaps at a moment's notice," Edwards said. "But his being here was a huge reason for our result this week, even though he didn't play. His attitude and support was great."
Texas Tech's Ludvig Aberg claimed medalist honors with a 14-under 202 score, edging Oklahoma's Drew Goodman, who finished at 13-under 203; both finished with 5-under 67s Wednesday. The two top individuals not on an advancing team, Mississippi's Hugo Townsend and Kansas' Will King, tied for fourth with 9-under 207 scores; King earned the lone invitation to the finals by defeating Townsend in a playoff that lasted eight holes.
The NCAA Finals will take play at Grayhawk Golf Club due north of Scottsdale, Ariz., beginning May 26. Four days of stroke play will open the event, with the field cut to the low 15 teams after three rounds. The top eight will then advance into match play, with quarterfinals and semifinals set for May 30 and the championship match on May 31. Texas is the defending champion and qualified out of the fifth spot in the Bath, Mich., regional.
NOTES: The eight strokes that separated first through sixth made this regional the most hotly contested; next tightest was the Morgan Hill (Calif.) event where 15 strokes separated the top six … Alabama had all five of its players finish under par (all in the top 28), while CU and Texas Tech had their quintets all finish par or better and in the top 39 … Thirteen of CU's 15 scores were between 67 and 73 … The 23-under 841 was easily CU's best score ever in a regional, topping a 2-under 862 in 2018, the only other subpar effort … The average score for all 225 rounds was 72.25, with the lowest average of 71.20 coming in Wednesday's final round when there were 21 rounds in the 60s (after just 26 the first two rounds), along with 46 subpar rounds overall and another eight even-par efforts … Colorado played the par-4's the second-best at 1-under (trailing only Alabama's 9-under), the par-3s at 4-over (tied for fifth) and the par-5s at 19-under (tied for sixth) … The Buffs led the field in pars with 183 ('Bama was next with 179), tied for third in eagles (2) and finished eighth in birdies (50, North Florida led with 67) … The Buffs also had the third-lowest bogeys (32, Alabama had 29 and Oklahoma 30), and with 35 holes worse than par overall, tailed only the Crimson Tide (31) … How much does Swanson love golf according to Edwards? After returning to Colorado tonight, he departs in the morning to play in the U.S. Four Ball this weekend in South Carolina) … McDermott remains CU's stroke average leader with a 69.95 mark for 37 rounds, with Biwer (70.81), Clark (72.08), Swanson (72.32) and Holland (72.85) joining him as the first Buff quintet to all have sub-73 averages this late in a season.
NOTES II: The Pac-12 placed eight teams in five different regionals this postseason and four have advanced to the finals: CU, Arizona State and Stanford finished 1-2 in the Las Vegas regional, and Oregon finished third in the Bath regional. Not advancing were Washington (sixth, Auburn regional), Cal and Arizona (sixth and eighth, Morgan Hill (Calif.) regional, and Oregon State (11th, Las Vegas).
NOTES III: This tied CU's second-best finish in a regional (third in 1989, the first year of the format); the only better finish was second in 1994 … Colorado, ranked No. 52, is the lowest ranked team of the 30 to make the finals; No. 54 Clemson came close, but lost to No. 14 Texas A&M in a playoff for the fifth spot in the Salem Regional … Edwards said CU will utilize the same line-up for the finals, with Hughes at present to be the sub … Though it has been 21 years since CU last qualified for the NCAA Finals (the 2001-02 season), two Buffs advanced out of regional play, Tolan (2008) and David Oraee (2015) … CU's best finish in the NCAA finals was a tie for eighth place in 1968 … Oraee and another Buff alum, Kevin Kring were in attendance for the final round.
| BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS | |||
| T11. | Hunter Swanson | 69-72-69—210 | |
| T16. | Justin Biwer | 70-71-70—211 | |
| T16. | Jack Holland | 73-71-67—211 | |
| T39. | Tucker Clark | 77-67-72—216 | |
| T39. | Dylan McDermott | 72-74-70—216 | |
| INDIVIDUAL LEADERS |
| 1. | Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech | 67-68-67—202 |
| 2. | Drew Goodman, Oklahoma | 66-70-67—203 |
| 3. | Ben Lorenz, Oklahoma | 68-72-66—206 |
| T4. | Will King, Kansas | 68-71-68—207 |
| T4. | Hugo Townsend, Mississippi | 69-69-69—207 |
| T4. | Nick Dunlap, Alabama | 66-71-70—207 |
| TEAM STANDINGS |
| 1. | Alabama | 281-280-275—836 |
| 2. | Oklahoma | 279-284-276—839 |
| 3. | COLORADO | 284-281-276—841 |
| 4. | Texas Tech | 278-287-277—842 |
| 5. | Duke | 283-285-275—843 |
| DID NOT ADVANCE TO NCAA FINALS: | ||
| 6. | North Florida | 285-281-278—844 |
| 7. | Wake Forest | 294-281-279—854 |
| 8. | Louisiana State | 292-280-283—855 |
| 9. | Kansas | 288-289-281—858 |
| 10. | Mississippi | 293-280-286—859 |
| 11. | UNC-Wilmington | 296-282-285—863 |
| 12. | Princeton | 293-296-280—869 |
| 13. | Louisiana | 297-290-287—874 |
| 14. | Arkansas-Pine Bluff | 313-307-306—926 |
Players Mentioned
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