The Kansas men’s golf team concluded its season on Wednesday at the Athens Regional at the University of Georgia Golf Course, as it finished in a tie for 11th in the 13-team field at 7-under and fell 12 strokes short of fifth place and qualification for the NCAA Championship.
As a team, No. 7 seed KU put itself in an early hole by shooting 8-over on Monday to start out in 12th after its first round of competition. The Jayhawks improved enough to shoot 8-under on Tuesday and 7-under on Wednesday, despite having to sub out senior leader Will King for junior substitute Max Jelinek due to injury, but were not able to make up much ground in terms of the overall standings.
“We really had it going today in our first nine holes, but then it stalled out on the back nine,” KU coach Jamie Bermel said in a press release on Wednesday. “After struggling in the first round, we got behind the eight ball and it’s hard to make up those strokes going against the type of competition you see in a regional field.”
No. 3 seed Vanderbilt (28-under) won the team title, and was joined in qualifying by No. 6 seed Louisville (26-under), No. 1 seed Auburn (22-under), No. 4 seed BYU (20-under) and No. 5 seed host Georgia (19-under). Georgia beat out No. 9 seed Charleston by a stroke.
Also ahead of KU were Southern Miss (10-under) at seventh, Northwestern and Harvard in a tie for eighth (9-under) and Rice at 10th (8-under); Illinois finished in a surprising tie with KU after entering as the No. 2 seed in the regional, while Howard was last at 33-over.
Vanderbilt’s Will Hartman and Louisiana’s Malan Potgieter tied for the individual title at 14-under. Hartman was boosted by an impressive 8-under second round. Potgieter will continue to the NCAA Championship as the top individual from a non-advancing team.
For KU, freshman Arthur Carlier, from Soissons, France, led the way by tying for 14th at 5-under. Several of the remaining Jayhawks were clustered: Junior Will Baker, a Georgia native and Clemson transfer, shot 1-over to tie for 42nd, senior Luke Honner tied for 47th at 2-over and sophomore Hartej Grewal tied for 49th at 3-over.
King was the only Jayhawk under par at 1-under on Monday, the lone day he competed. Jelinek finished even on Tuesday and did not count toward the team score at 3-over on Wednesday.
Honner and King were the lone seniors on the 2025-26 roster, so KU should be able to maintain quite a bit of continuity entering next season. Bermel has signed Brady Rapp from Leawood, Jack Swift from Kent, England, and Nicolas Vidal Reig from Spain for the upcoming freshman class.
“Overall, I’d say we had a fairly solid season and I’m proud of all the guys,” Bermel said in the release. “I’d like to give a huge shoutout to our seniors, who not only were great players but great representatives of our program and KU.”
