Golf Big12Sports.com

Texas Falls to USC in NCAA Championship

The No. 2 University of Texas Men’s Golf team fell in the NCAA Championship quarterfinal round of match play to No. 5 USC, 3-0-2 on Tuesday at Concession Golf Club to end its season.

Senior Kramer Hickok teed off first for the Longhorns and fell into a 1-down deficit to Bobby Gojuangco right away. He won hole 12 to even the score, but fell back on hole 15 and finished the back nine, 3-down. From there, Gojuangco maintained his lead and won, 4&2 on the seventh hole.

Freshman Doug Ghim battled with Rico Hoey as neither player led by more than one until Hoey took a 2-up lead on the 18th hole. Ghim reached back within one, but Hoey regained a 2-up lead on the fourth hole to win his match, 2&1 on 17.

Sophomore Gavin Hall took an early lead on the 10th hole to start the match, but USC’s Sean Crocker fired back to even the score to all square. Hall regained the lead and led, 2-up on the 13th and 14th holes before Crocker evened it out again. Hall fired back once again and took another 2-up lead and extended it to 3-up going into hole four. Crocker slowly chipped away at the lead to even it back on 18 and won the match on in a playoff on the 10th hole.

Freshman Scottie Scheffler started strong, taking a 2-up lead after the first two holes over Eric Sugimoto and maintained a lead until the 16th hole, when Sugimoto made it all square. Sugimoto then took the lead and led 2-up going into the final two holes. Scheffler won the final two holes to make the score all square to force a playoff, however, the match was called before they could finish.

Sophomore Beau Hossler fell in a deficit early to Jonah Texeira, but evened the score on 13. Texeira took the lead back and led by 1 and 2-up until the second-to-last hole when Hossler evened the score again. On the last hole, Hossler had a putt to win his match, but the winner had already been decided.

Texas ends one of the best seasons in history, as the Longhorns won seven tournaments including their third-straight Big 12 Conference Championship