SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Led by Gordon Sargent and William Moll, Vanderbilt secured a spot in Monday’s fourth round of stroke play at the NCAA Championships by shooting a 281 in the third round Sunday at the Grayhawk Golf Club.
Sargent (-4), the tournament’s overall leader, carded a 68 and has a one-shot lead on Oklahoma’s Chris Gotterup going into Monday. The Commodores are in third place as a team – six strokes back of Oklahoma – and need to remain in the top eight Monday to advance to match play which begins Tuesday.
Vandy is 21 shots ahead of eight-place Arkansas.
“(Sargent) has just done a great job of being coachable this week in terms of having a plan that would get him around this place for 54 holes so far,” Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh said. “He has shown a lot of maturity this week and just needs to stick to what he’s been doing and not try to do anything more. That’s big on a day like Monday, just hit as many comfortable golf shots as you can. That goes a long way.”
A freshman, Sargent played near-flawless golf until bogeys on 17 and 18. He had four birdies in a nine-hole stretch before that.
Moll (+4), a junior, was even-par through nine holes before catching fire on the back nine. He birdied 12, 14 and 16 and finished with a 68.
Cole Sherwood (+2), the event’s leader after 36 holes, fell to 11th after his third round included three double-bogeys. Harrison Ott (tied for 34th, +7) shot a 72 on Sunday while Reid Davenport (tied for 68th, +12) carded a 73.
“Excited for the guys to hang in there on the third day of the national championship,” Limbaugh said. “Good to have Reid back in there a little bit, he’s a huge part of what we’re doing. William was really big today, just looked in-control, looked really good on the back nine so I’m proud of him.
“Harry battled again and has really looked good the past two days. I thought we had all five in it for the most part. Cole just had a couple execution things today. His round got away from him a little bit but he hung in there just like we have as a team all week.”
Vandy started the day strong Sunday with six birdies, two each coming from Sargent and Moll. That two continued to lead the charge down the backstretch with five more birdies combined while Sargent rose to the top of the leaderboard.
Vanderbilt, as a team, stayed in second as it made the turn behind the hot-shooting Sooners of Oklahoma. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State both shot a 3-under-par 277 to move into first and second, respectively, by day’s end.
The Commodores, who will once again be paired with the Sooners and Cowboys, are scheduled to tee off at 1:50 p.m. CT Monday.
“I think we didn’t do some of the simple things at as high of a level as we had been,” Limbaugh said. “But going into the final round of stroke play Monday you just have to trust the work you put in, you got to trust your routine, hits comfortable shots – all the little things we talk about over and over and over. Then just enjoy it. Nothing gets better than being on a team and we just need to be excited to play. It’ll be a great challenge.”
Four Dores Honored by GCAA
Four Commodores were honored by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Sunday.
Ott, Davenport, Sherwood and Sargent were all named to the NCAA Division I PING All-Region for the Southeast.
