It was a day of big movement at the NCAA golf regional in Norman, Oklahoma on Tuesday, but the Kansas men’s team went in the wrong direction.
Everybody but one freshman that is.
The Jayhawks posted a team score of 1-over par in Round 2 of the three-day tournament. The problem: Nearly every other team in the tourney came in under par. KU was just one of four teams in the 14-school field that couldn’t break par at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club.
But KU freshman Will King shot a 1-under par round after posting a 4-under score in the first round of the tournament. He’s now in sixth place among the 77 players competing in the regional competition.
King will enter the final round with a chance to qualify as an individual to compete in the NCAA National Championships. The top golfer who is not on a team that qualifies for the National Championship tournament will advance out of the Norman regional. Currently, Hugo Townsend of Ole Miss has the lowest score among golfers not on a team scheduled to advance. However, King is just one stroke behind Townsend.
As a team, KU is not sitting nearly as well. KU finished Round No. 2 in 10th place, and will need a gigantic effort in the final round on Wednesday to finish among the top five teams that will advance to the NCAA championship tournament later this month.
At 1-over par for the tournament, KU is 11 strokes behind the fifth place team, North Florida. KU also has four nationally-ranked teams — No. 29 Wake Forest, No. 20 Ole Miss, No. 41 LSU and No. 32 Duke — in between it and the coveted fifth-place spot.
KU’s Round 2 score of 1-over par is only one stroke worse than its Round 1 total. But the rest of the field upped its game on Tuesday. KU fell three places in the team standings, and it lost seven important strokes on the fifth place spot. KU ended Round 1 just four strokes behind the fifth place team, but now is 11 shots back.
King is doing his part to keep the Jayhawks in it. His first taste of NCAA regional action is becoming a breakout event for him. The Olathe freshman played his high school golf at Rockhurst. King’s best finish this season was an eighth-place showing at the Hawkeye Invitational in early April, but he then followed that up with a 33rd place finish in the Big 12 Championships in late April.
For the second day in a row, KU’s top golfer heading into the tournament struggled. Junior Gunnar Broin carded a 3-over 75 after shooting a 4-over 76 in Round No. 1. Coming into the tournament, he had KU’s lowest scoring average, but he currently is fifth among the five KU golfers competing.
The University of Alabama is the new team leader in the event. Alabama, ranked No. 17 in the country moved up two spots in the team standings after shooting an 8-under par for the day. Alabama was one of three schools that shot 8-under on the day. No. 41 ranked LSU and No. 20 ranked Ole Miss also shot 8-under but are still outside the top five at seventh and eighth, respectively.
Texas Tech, the No. 5 ranked team in the country, saw its day lead evaporate after carding a 1-under team score on Tuesday. Texas Tech is now in a tie for third place, four shots behind Alabama. Oklahoma, ranked No. 9 in the country, is in second place. Colorado and North Florida round out the top five.
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