Tag Archives: College Golf

2023 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship on Golf Channel

Posted on by
Reply

Last week was the Women’s NCAA championship and Wake Forest won. This week the men compete for the national title. The competition began on Friday with rounds determining the cut for individual stroke play and also the final teams for match play.

Days and Format of Play:

Same format as the women. Below is the stroke play and match play information:

  • Friday, May 26 | Stroke play (All 156 participants)
  • Saturday, May 27 | Stroke play (All 156 participants)
  • Sunday, May 28 | Stroke play ( All 156 participants)
  • Monday, May 29 | Stroke play (Top 15 teams, top nine individuals)
  • Tuesday, May 30 | Match play (Top eight teams, Individual champion crowned)
  • Wednesday, May 31 | Match play (Team champion crowned)

How to Watch:

Same timeline as the women’s last week. The Golf Channel Broadcast times (in the USA):

May 29 (Monday) at 5 pm: Final Round Individual Stroke Play
May 30 (Tuesday) at Noon: Quarter Finals, Team Matches
May 30 (Tuesday) at 5 p.m.: Semi-Finals, Team Matches
May 31 (Wednesday) at 5 p.m.: Final Team Match
streaming is also available on Peacock

You can follow the live scoring online at Golf Stats website

Defending Champions:

Individual Stroke Play: Gordon Sargent, Vanderbilt University

Team Match Play: Texas University

Top 5 Individuals (going into the final round of Stroke Play)

  • Ross Steelman (-9), Georgia Tech
  • Neal Shipley (-5), Ohio State
  • Dylan Menante (-5), North Carolina
  • Barclay Brown (-4), Stanford
  • Fred Biondi (-4), Florida

You may be wondering about Gordon Sargent #1 ranked college player. Sargent is currently T59 at 7 over par. In fact, none of the top five ranked college players have played well in the first few rounds so they have work to do to win the national championship.

For those that remember Sam Bennett from his wonderful performance at The Masters, he sites T89 at +10.

Top Five Teams of the 15 remaining in stroke play

Note: Of the 15 the top 8 will move to match play.

  • University of Illinois
  • Pepperdine
  • Florida
  • North Carolina
  • Georgia Tech

The big shock was that Texas Tech, with Ludvig Aberg did not make the 15 teams for Monday. They were tied 15 with Ohio State and Ohio advanced.

Background on Team and Players

Rankings of the College Teams

You can check out all the rankings for college golf teams on the GolfWeek website but the top teams are currently:

  1. Vanderbilt University
  2. North Carolina
  3. University of Illinois
  4. Arizona State University
  5. Texas Tech
  6. Stanford University

Rankings of College Players

These rankings are college rankings which are different from the WAGR (World Amatuer Golf Rankings). I have listed the WAGR rankings below.

  1. Gordon Sargent, Vanderbilt
  2. Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech
  3. Michael Thornbjorsen, Stanford
  4. Adrian Dumont de Chassart, Illinois
  5. Preston Summerhays, Arizona State

World Amateur Golf Rankings

  1. Ludvig Aberg
  2. Gordon Sargent
  3. Michael Thornbjorsen
  4. David Ford
  5. Sam Bennett
Advertisement

2023 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships on Golf Channel

Posted on by
Reply

I love watching college sports and it’s great that Golf Channel broadcasts the NCAA D1 Championship played at Grey Hawk in Arizona. The competition began on Friday with rounds determining the cut for individual stroke play and also the final teams for match play.

Stroke Play: Monday an individual champion will be determined. After three rounds, the individual stroke top five players are:

  • Catherine Park, Southern California (-10)
  • Luica Lopez-Ortega, San Jose State (-7)
  • Ingrid Linblad, LSU (-6)
  • Rose Zhang, Stanford (-6)
  • Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, Oklahoma State (-6)

Match Play – 15 College Teams advancing to play one more day of stroke play on Monday to determine the final eight teams advancing to match play. To see scoring for all 30 collages go to the Golfstat leaderboard but the top six top teams of the 15 competing on Monday are:

  1. Stanford
  2. Wake Forest
  3. Texas
  4. Southern California
  5. Florida State
  6. South Carolina

The Golf Channel coverage begins with the final round stroke playe to determine the overall individual NCAA D1 Champion and eight teams that will move forward for match play. The team scores are calculated by taking the best four individual scores (called “counting scores”) of the five golfers playing for their college.

How to Watch:

The Golf Channel Broadcast times (in the USA):

May 22 (Monday) at 5 pm: Final Round Individual Stroke Play
May 23 (Tuesday) at Noon: Quarter Finals, Team Matches
May 23 (Tuesday) at 5 p.m.: Semi-Finals, Team Matches
May 24 (Wednesday) at 5 p.m.: Final Team Match
streaming is also available on Peacock

Format of play:

(1) Individual Championship is stroke play.

(2) Team Championship is match play. The team championship used to be stroke play but was changed to match play in 2015.

Colleges Participating:

30 colleges qualifying via six regional competitions. Per the NCAA website:

“The championship format in Scottsdale will include 30 teams and six individuals completing 54 holes of stroke play, and then the top 15 teams along with the top nine individuals not on an advancing team competing for one additional day of stroke play to determine the top eight teams for match play competition and the 72-hole stroke play individual champion. The top eight teams then compete in match play for the team national championship to be decided May 24.”

Defending Champions:

Individual Stroke Play: Rose Zhang, Stanford

Team Match Play: Stanford University

Rankings of the College Teams

You can check out all the rankings for college golf teams on the GolfWeek website but the top teams are currently:

  1. Wake Forest
  2. Stamford
  3. South Carolina
  4. LSU
  5. Texas A&M

Since I live in South Carolina, I also have to share that Clemson (Ranked 28th in the GolfWeek college team list) played but did not make the cut. Clemson finished T24 in the Team Event. For the individual competition, nine players (who’s teams are not advancing) will move forward for the individual final; and Savanah Grewal of Clemson was in a 3 person playoff for the last spot and won so she advances to Monday’s final.

Watch College Golf

Posted on by
Reply

If you love to watch golf but don’t watch college golf, you are missing out. If you like watching stroke play – it’s got it. If you like watching match play – it’s got it. If you like team sports – yup, college golf is all about “the team.”

The other reasons I love college golf:

  1. Future Stars of Professional golf: It’s fun to see the up and coming golfers and then follow their careers in the top amateur events and then see who makes it on the professional tours.
  2. Relating to the College Golfers: Yes, their games are well beyond my skill set but they are still learning and I find I can relate to the ups and downs they have in their rounds. And they let you know how they are feeling because they are so expressive with their emotions.
  3. Big Moments: It never seems to fail that there is a big moment or a moment that you can tell changes a golfer’s life. One example, Haley Moore, playing for University of Arizona made the winning putt for the 2018 NCAA Women’s National Championship. That moment changed her life not only because of the winning putt but also because of the focused on her compelling “backstory” which was the focus of many articles, etc. She made it to the LPGA tour because of her talent but I doubt she would have PXG as a sponsor or be well known by LPGA fans if not for the moment created by that final putt at the NCAA championship and the focus on her personal story.

The college golf event that gets all the attention is NCAA Championship in the spring but thanks to Golf Channel’s commitment to college golf, you can watch the Maridoe Invitational (Men’s golf) today thru Wednesday (September 13 – September 15) on Golf Channel (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST). Maridoe is a course in Texas – side note: my favorite PGA Tour Player Jordan Speith is a member.

You can also read interesting articles at College Central on the Golf Channel Website. Also, Golf Week has a good college golf section. And I like to follow Julie Williams of GolfWeek on Twitter. I think one of the best college golf geeks is on Golf Channel, Steve Burkowski and he’s also on Twitter.

In 2021, Pepperdine won the NCAA for the men and Ole Miss won for the women. Both were a surprise. For me, especially Ole Miss because Stanford has an amazing women’s team. In fact, in 2022, I would be shocked if Stanford doesn’t win because they now have Rose Zhang as a freshman (#1 Amateur in the world rankings) and Rachel Heck is a sophmore (and as a freshman won the 2021 Individual NCAA women’s champion and is the #2 Amateur in the world rankings).

At a minimum you should watch the NCAA in the spring on Golf Channel. They televise both the men and women’s championships!