ATLANTA – We’re still seven months away from the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk, but if Wednesday’s championship performances at East Lake Golf Club were any indication, both reigning national runner-up teams should be firmly in the NCAA title mix next May.
Oklahoma won the men’s title at the East Lake Cup with a 3-1-1 victory over state rival Oklahoma State on Wednesday while Oklahoma State took the women’s crown with a 3-2 win against Duke.
If both squads aren’t the national favorites entering the winter break, they are close.
The Sooners fell just short of their second men’s title in their past four tries last spring before losing three All-Americans to graduation, but they reloaded this fall to earn the No. 1 ranking in Golfstat and post two wins and two other second-place showings.
Senior Christopher Gotterup transferred to Oklahoma from Rutgers this summer, picking the Sooners over the team that beat them last spring at Grayhawk, Pepperdine, which the Sooners got revenge against in Tuesday’s semifinals at East Lake. He’s teamed with another underrated senior in Logan McAllister while Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl has worked his magic in getting several young players to buy in.
This week’s star was redshirt freshman Jaxon Dowell, who traveled with the team at last year’s Big 12 and NCAA championships, not playing but getting to experience big-time golf.
“It was so cool just to see your teammates play under that type of pressure,” said Dowell, who beat Pepperdine’s Joey Vrzich, 4 and 2, in the semis before going out first against Oklahoma State senior Eugenio Chacarra, the eighth-ranked amateur in the world who is playing in next week’s PGA Tour event at Mayakoba.
Dowell was 2 down with three holes to play before birdieing Nos. 16 and 17 to square the match. He then beat Chacarra on the first extra hole to get the second point on the board.
“Some of these guys have been waiting around, they’re redshirt freshmen and…
Source : yahoo
