West Point Mississippi native and Vanderbilt senior golfer Senior Wells Williams led his team with a terrific round Monday in Round 4 of the NCAA Championships. (Photo courtesy of The Vanderbilt Hustler).
Our super senior leader, Wells Williams, shot a 2 under par 70 yesterday and Jon Ed, Ryan Downes and Will Hartman all birdied the par 5, 18th to lead our team to a third place finish at 12 under par, and put us in the Elite Eight Quarterfinals, where we are facing No.6 Arizona right now. More on that in a second.
Auburn finished first at -26, Texas was next at -23, we finished -12, OK State and Florida tied for 4th at -11, ‘Zona was sixth at -3, and UCLA and Stanford rounded out the field at -2.
We are now in the match play on the La Costa Resort and Spa North course and in our matches: 1. Chase Nevins is tied with Zona’s Taishi Moto after 5 holes. 2. Jon Ed is 1 up on Tianyi Xiong after 5 holes. 3. Will is 3 Up on Filip Jakubcik through 4 holes. 4. Ryan Downes is 2 Up on William Wistrand through 4 holes. 5.Wells is all tied with Zach Pollo through 3 holes. So we have a 4-1 lead right now.
Got a long way to go, but our guys are playing superb, confident golf right now. Wells is so solid, and Will and Jon Ed are playing like seniors instead of freshmen. Ryan, a sophomore from Longview, Massachusetts, has been good throughout the Championships, and Chase, a junior from Great Falls, Virginia, is getting his first start today, and doing well.
Our guys have been through the wars this season, both in the high level tournaments we’ve played in and the SEC Championships. We’ve taken our lumps at times, but are playing our best golf right now.
Our great freshman from Marvin, North Carolina, Will Hartman, is carrying his team on his back as we qualify for round 4 today at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California (Photo courtesy of On3).
Freshman Will Hartman shot four under 68 for the second day in a row on Sunday and is now 10 under for the NCAA Championships and led our team into the fourth round of the NCAA Championships today at La Costa Resort and Spa North Course in Carlsbad, Cali.
We are presently in third place at nine under par after day 3 after a 3 over par round Sunday. Auburn leads the field at 22 under and Texas is next at 19 under. Then we’re at -9, UCLA, ‘Zona, and OK State are at -8, Chapel Hill is at -6, Duke is -1, Oklahoma is Even, UVA and the Gators are at +1, while L-S-U, San Diego, Tennessee, and Stanford round out the top 15 teams that qualified for today’s fourth and final stroke round, as those four teams finished +2.
So, we’re right there heading into round 4. The goal today is to play outstanding golf, make the top 8 and qualify for the match play quarterfinals, which will commence Tuesday.
Coach Limbaugh is excellent at keeping his team locked in on the task at hand, so all we need to concentrate on a shot at a time. Pardon the triteness of that comment, but it’s a fact.
Scott said we need to quickly get over any mistakes and move forward. We need very short term memories on the 7,538 yard, par 72 La Costa North Course.
Jon Ed and Wells are at -1, while Ryan Downes is at +4, and Michael Riebe is at +18.
Will is tied for 2nd individually at -10, with Flip Jakubcik? of ‘Zona and William Jennings of Alabama, who is competing as an individual, as Alabama didn’t make the team tournament, but Jennings was one of the top 6 individual qualifiers from his region to make it to the NCAA Championships.
Preston Stout of Oklahoma State leads the individual competition at -11. The low medalist/individual National Champion will be decided after today’s final stroke round.
Gordon Sargent won the individual national championship for us in 2022.
We need Will to keep on truckin, as the Grateful Dead sang, and Jon Ed to get back to playing the type of golf he has been playing until yesterday. Wells needs to be good, and Ryan and Michael will HAVE to help us.
We need to be in the top 8 out of the 15 teams competing today to qualify for Tuesday’s quarterfinals match play.
We tee off today at 2:20 P.M. CT/3:20 East with Riebe for us playing with Auburn’s Cayden Pope and Texas’s Daniel Bennett. At 2:31/3:31- Ryan Downes for us, Logan Reilly for Auburn, and Matt Comegys for Texas. At 2:42/3:42-Jon Ed, Jake Albert for Auburn, and Christiaan Maas for UT. At 2:53-3:53-Wells for us, the great Jackson Koivun for Auburn, and Luke Potter for Hook’em. At 3:04/4:04- Will for us, Josiah Gilbert for Auburn, and Tommy Morrison for Texas.
Golf Channel will televise and stream today at 4:30-8:30 P.M. CT/5:30-9:30 East.
Will keep you very much apprised.
Luuuke Kornet had a heckuva game changing block for the San Antonio Spurs in replacing the great Victor Wembanyama, who was saddled with five fouls, making the play of the game that led the Spurs to the NBA Championship as they defeated the defending NBA Champion OKC Thunder, 111-103, at Oklahoma City in game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
Luke and the Spurs will square off with the New York Knicks starting this Wednesday at 7:30 P.M. CT/8:30 East for the NBA Championship. The Spurs, with the better regular season record than the Knicks, will host the first two games, the Knicks the next two, then @ the Spurs, @the Knicks and @ the Spurs if games 5,6 and 7 are necessary.
Luke, at 30 years old, is having a really nice NBA career and is a stellar backup to Wemby.
Jon Ed cookin at the North Course of the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Cali. (Photo courtesy of x)
Hope everybody is having a nice weekend. Our Men’s Golf team sure is cookin’.
Jon Ed Steed is at -7 overall after a 67 yesterday on the par 72 North Course at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, CA., near San Diego, and fellow freshman Will Hartman is at -6 after the first two rounds, as our frosh from Marvin, N.C., 20 miles southeast of Charlotte, is playing exceptional golf as well.
Senior Wells Williams of West Point, Mississippi is at -2 under. And we are now 13 under as a team in the third round of the NCAA Championships.
We are tied with No.3 Texas in second place and are 8 back of Auburn, which sits at 21 under. All five of our players are now on the course. Sophomore Ryan Downes, from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, has two birdies already to get us to -13 overall. We came into today at -12.
Jon Ed dropped a shot on 1. Michael Riebe bogeyed one and Wells and Will are at even through one. Ryan just birdied the 383 yard, par 4 fourth. We are on holes one through four. The top 15 teams after today’s round will qualify to play Monday in an 18 hole event with the scores carrying over from today.
Monday, the top 8 teams from the group of 15 will qualify for the quarterfinals of match play to be played Tuesday.
So, great stuff from the Fellas. Will keep you updated today.
