EUGENE, Ore. – The Vanderbilt men’s golf team is Elite Eight bound. The Commodores finished in a tie for fourth at the NCAA Championship Monday with USC, and will advance to match play for the second consecutive season and for the second time in the program’s history. The Commodores posted a four-round total of 1137 (283-280-282-292), and will take on the Trojans Tuesday at 7:50 a.m. Pacific time in a quarterfinal match.
The winner of the morning match will advance to the semifinals, which takes place on Tuesday afternoon.
Junior Matthias Schwab paced the Commodore effort for the tournament, finishing in third place individually with a score of 279 (71-68-67-73). Sophomore Theo Humphrey was Vanderbilt’s next best finisher with a total of 285 (67-73-73-72), which tied him for 17th.
Schwab was in contention for much of the day and finished with a final-round 73. The Commodores also counted a 72 from Humphrey, a 73 from freshman Will Gordon, and a 74 from freshman Patrick Martin on Monday.
“Overall, I think I played a decent round,” said Schwab. “I hit them alright, putted alright. Something was missing for me to shoot a good round and be in contention. It was really disappointing to three-putt 12 and then on 14, I hit a good shot, but what happened (ball went over green and into water) was unfortunate. I think I can be happy for what happened, and I was obviously happy for the team to have made it through with everyone having a tough day out there. But, everyone hung in there and finished it off.”
Vanderbilt, who led all teams entering the final round Monday, carded a 12-over par, 292, in their fourth round. The Commodores made the turn at four-over par, but struggled on holes 12 through 16, when they combined to count eight-over par for the stretch. But Humphrey holed a bunker shot on 17 for birdie, and Gordon stuck his second shot on the par-four, 490-yard 17th within three feet for another birdie. The two threes helped solidify Vanderbilt’s place in the quarterfinals Tuesday morning.
“I thought it was a good day,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh. “Shoot, you never take days like this for granted, and as a coach, I think you know going into a day like today it’s going to be hard. The course played very difficult and for our group, the back nine got tough. But, I’m really proud of the way we hung in there and finished. We’re a young team and I tell the guys all of the time, when things are hard, it makes you better. We had a stretch through there where we got a little emotional and things were slipping a little bit. But, these guys weathered the storm and they finished like champions.”
Texas, Illinois, LSU, USC, Oregon, South Carolina, and Oklahoma will all join Vanderbilt in match play Tuesday. Texas will take on Oklahoma, Illinois will play South Carolina, LSU will take on Oregon, and the Commodores will face the Trojans.
“Last year in match play, I think we let our guard down,” said Limbaugh. “I don’t think anyone with our group right now thinks the job is finished. We’re playing a great team tomorrow with a great coach, and that team is very well prepared. We’ll need to play very well. But we’re not satisfied on where we are. There are more steps this team is going to take and they’ve earned the right to do that and I think they deserve to take another step.”
Oregon’s Aaron Wise claimed the individual title with a five-under par, 275 (70-70-64-71), two strokes better than Rico Hoey of USC and four shots in front of Schwab.
Golf Channel will provide two hours of live coverage of the morning matches beginning at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time, and then will broadcast the semifinals live beginning at 4 p.m. Pacific time.
T4. Vanderbilt – 283-280-282-292=1137
T3. Matthias Schwab – 71-68-67-73=279
T17. Theo Humphrey – 67-73-73-72=285
T37. Will Gordon – 72-70-73-73=288
T45. Patrick Martin – 73-71-72-74=290
T81. Carson Jacobs – 80-71-70-80=301
