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Oklahoma Moves Into NCAA Golf Final Four

With coach Ryan Hybl decked out in his lucky 2017 sweater, the Sooners are feeling "some good mojo" heading into semifinal match against top seed Arizona State.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Moves Into NCAA Golf Final Four
Oklahoma Moves Into NCAA Golf Final Four

Oklahoma coach Ryan Hybl has his lucky sweater, and Oklahoma is in the Final Four.

Any correlation between Sooner history and this year’s NCAA Golf Championships may be revealed over the next two rounds.

After finishing the weekend fourth in stroke play and earning the No. 4 seed in match play, the Sooners opened Tuesday’s action at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, AZ, by beating No. 5 seed Illinois 3 and 2.

OU now moves on to a Tuesday evening semifinal against host and top-seed Arizona State. Coverage begins on Golf Channel at 4 p.m. CT.

“We’re gonna stick to our game plan,” Hybl said in an interview on Golf Channel. “Fairways and greens. That’s what gets the job done around here. We’re gonna have to just grind away.”

Despite nearly 100-degree temperatures, Hybl wore an OU sweater vest — the same won he wore in 2017 when the Sooners won the national championship.

“I took off my dry-cleaning tags from 2017 this morning,” Hybl said. “First time I’ve worn this. I just felt some good mojo this week with these guys. … The boys back in’ 17, they know about this one. So we’ll see if it can carry on for us.”

Oklahoma seniors Jonathan Brightwell and Quade Cummins and junior Logan McAllister earned the three victories Tuesday morning, while Ben Lorenz and Patrick Welch took the loss.

Brightwell beat Giovanni Tadiotto 3 and 1, McAllister beat Jerry Ji 2 and 1, and in the final pairing, Cummins sent the Sooners into the semifinals with a par putt on 18 to defeat Tommy Kuhl 2 and 1.

“Coming up on No. 8, it’s a pretty easy pin and I knew Tommy missed the green because nobody clapped,” Cummins said. “And so I was just trying to get in that bowl and have an easy 2-putt for par, because I knew he was gonna have a difficult chip.”

In Tuesday morning’s other quarterfinals, No. 1 seed Arizona State defeated North Carolina 3-1-1, No. 3 seed Pepperdine beat Florida State 3-1-1, and No. 2 seed Oklahoma State nearly swept Vanderbilt 4-1.

OSU now takes on Pepperdine in the other semifinal.

If both OU and OSU win on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday’s finale would be a Bedlam showdown for the National Championship. The Sooners won the national title in 2017, while the Cowboys won it all in 2018.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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