Texas Tech Struggles In First Round of NCAA Golf Championship
The Texas Tech Red Raiders were not on their game after the first round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships, leaving them with ground to make up to clear the 54-hole cut.
Tech finished with a 17-over-par 297, which put them in a tie for 19th place with Ole Miss, East Tennessee State, and Utah. That only puts the Red Raiders five shots out of the cut line, which takes place on Sunday.
But no team in the field cleared par on Friday. The Red Raiders had momentum going in, having finished in a tie for third at the New Haven Regional and bolstered by Ludvig Aberg, the newly-minted Ben Hogan Award winner.
Aberg led the Red Raiders on Friday, but he didn’t break par. Instead, the country’s No. 2 college golfer and Big 12 champion shot a 1-over-par 71 at Grayhawk Golf Club.
From there, Baard Skogen shot a 73, Sandy Scott shot a 75, Carl Didrik Meen Fosaas shot a 78 and Andy Lopez shot a 79.
Vanderbilt shot the best round of the day as a team, with a 2-over 282. Behind the Commodores in a tie for second three shots back were Oregon and Auburn. Kansas, which slipped into the NCAA Championships as a fifth-place finisher, finished in a tie for fourth with Arizona four shots back.
After that, Oklahoma was in sixth place, followed by North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, and Liberty.
After 54 holes at Grayhawk, the field will be cut to the Top 15 teams on Sunday night. The Top 15 will advance to the final round of stroke play on Monday. After Monday’s fourth round, the field will be cut to the Top 8 and those teams will advance to match play to determine the team championship.
Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be played on Tuesday, and the championship match will be played on Wednesday.
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