The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Championship
Men's Golf earns No. 3 seed at NCAA Championship
05.31.2012 | Men's Golf
May 31, 2012
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- A final-round even-par 284 propelled the No. 1 Texas Men's Golf team to a third-place finish in the stroke-play portion of the 2012 NCAA Championship at Riviera Country Club on Thursday evening. The Longhorns (290-295-284=869, +17) entered the third round tied for 13th place and one stroke off the top-eight team cutline to advance to the match-play championship format for the first time in Texas history.
Texas earned the No. 3 seed and will face sixth-seeded Washington at 2:15 p.m. Central on Friday afternoon. Individual pairings within the match will be released tomorrow morning. The 2012 NCAA Championship marks UT's first appearance in the match-play portion that first began in 2009 and replaced the previous 72-hole stroke-play championship format.
By virtue of a top-eight finish, the 2012 NCAA Championship at least marks Texas' best finish since 2003 when it finished tied for third place and its first top-10 at the national championship since finishing fourth in 2004. The Longhorns won back-to-back NCAA Championship titles in 1971 and 1972.
No. 1-seed Alabama (285-287-289=859, +7) will face either Florida State or Kent State in the first match set to begin at 10 a.m. A playoff (explanation follows) to determine the final spot between the Seminoles and Golden Flash is set to begin at 10 a.m. Central off 18. Second-seeded UCLA (289-287-285=861, +9) is matched against No. 7 Oregon (291-294-288=873, +21), and No. 4 California (295-289-287=871, +19) will take on No. 5 San Diego State (292-295-284=871, +19).
Individually, freshman Jordan Spieth bounced back from an 8-over 79 in Wednesday's round to lead the Horns with a 2-under 69. His 54-hole total of 8-over 221 tied him for 54th place.
Junior Julio Vegas (72-73-71) and senior Dylan Frittelli (72-72-72) finished tied for 21st place at 3-over 216. Junior Cody Gribble (73-79-72) tied for 77th at 224 and sophomore Toni Hakula (80-71-74=225) finished tied for 89th place.
Live streaming of the 10th, 14th and 18th holes will continue Friday and run though the duration of the championship, beginning at 2 p.m. Central each day on NCAA.com.
PLAYOFF EXPLANATION - The playoff will consist of two fivesomes, one with three players from one team, two from the other, and vice versa for the second fivesome. If the teams are tied after 18, they will go again at hole 10 and go back-and-forth until a winner is determined.
POST-ROUND COMMENTS
Texas Head Coach John Fields
On advancing to match play: It feels really good to make match play. It's something you work towards all year, and I'm super excited for our guys. They played extremely well today, closed well, and did everything we asked of them
Freshman Jordan Spieth
On Texas' third round: The guys seemed really relaxed on the range. Myself, I was a little anxious, a little ancy, because we'd dug ourselves such a hole and yesterday didn't go the way we wanted it to. We weren't too nervous, and got off to a pretty good start and played consistent golf, which was what we needed to do.
Senior Dylan Frittelli
On advancing to match play: There was a lot of pressure on us. We knew coming into today that we'd need a good round, to shoot even par or maybe under par, to make it into match play. The guys excelled. They came through pretty well.
On the differences between stroke and match play: We've played a bit of match play amongst each other, and we know how to play it. We've definitely made if one of our goals to learn to play match play because it is completely different than stroke play.
2012 NCAA Championship - Riviera Country Club
Team Standings (Through 3 rounds; top-eight advance to match play)
1. Alabama - 285-287-287=859 (+7)
2. UCLA - 289-287-285=861 (+9)
3. TEXAS - 290-295-284=869 (+17)
T4. California - 295-289-287=871 (+19)
T4. San Diego State - 292-295-284=871 (+19)
6. Washington - 296-286-290=872 (+20)
7. Oregon - 291-294-288=873 (+21)
T8. Kent State - 293-291-291=875 (+23)
T8. Florida State - 290-290-295=875 (+23)
---------------------------------------------------
10. Liberty - 295-288-293=876 (+24)
11. Oklahoma - 289-292-296=877 (+25)
T12 North Florida - 290-291-297=878 (+26)
T12. Florida - 288-296-294=878 (+26)
14. Texas A&M - 298-296-285=879 (+27)
T15. Auburn - 288-299-292=880 (+28)
T15. Southern California - 298-286-296=880 (+28)
17. Georgia - 295-298-288=881 (+29)
18. Chattanooga - 299-295-290=884 (+32)
T19. Stanford - 293-302-290=885 (+33)
T19. UCF - 290-298-297=885 (+34)
21. Illinois - 295-289-303=887 (+36)
T22. Iowa - 290-299-299=888 (+36)
T22. Virginia - 306-292-290=888 (+36)
24. Virginia Tech - 299-302-289=890 (+38)
25. Lamar - 299-303-290=892 (+40)
26. East Carolina - 295-303-297=895 (+43)
27. TCU - 299-299-299=897 (+45)
28. Memphis - 299-302-300=901 (+49)
29. UAB - 297-303-302=902 (+50)
30. Tulsa - 306-307-305=918 (+66)
