HOCKLEY, Texas – BYU men’s golf split its matches at the Big 12 Match Play on Tuesday, losing to No. 2 seeded Oklahoma 4-1 in the morning before rebounding and beating No. 11 seeded Iowa State 4-1.
"This is a fun tournament, definitely not like anything we’ve done so far,” said Keanu Akina. "It really feels more like a team game now. I played great today, which is good for the confidence.”
Akina defeated Oklahoma’s Stephen Campbell Jr. on the 18th hole of the match as he sunk a long birdie putt. The senior won big against Iowa State’s Zach May in the afternoon match, ending the round at 6&5.
The Cougars will compete with 12-seeded Kansas for the second match of bracket play on Wednesday, teeing off at 7:45 a.m. CT. Live scoring can be found on golfstat.com.
Day Two Morning vs Oklahoma
Besides Akina, the rest of the Cougars dropped their morning matches against No. 2-seeded Oklahoma. Jase Summy defeated Zac Jones 4&3, while Cooper Jones dropped the decision against Ryder Cowan 2&1. Luke Kluver defeated Cole Ponich 6&5, with Max Brenchley losing to Drew Goodman 4&3.
Day Two Afternoon vs Iowa State
The Cougars bounced back in the afternoon as they defeated No. 11-seeded Iowa State 4-1. Akina’s big win of 6&5 led the way, with both Ponich and C. Jones defeating their opponents 2&1.
"Playing in the Big 12 match play for the first time has been a great experience for me and our team,” said Ponich. "It’s an awesome team environment, and I’m excited to get the opportunity to come back next year.”
"In the afternoon, we played against Iowa State, and we played much better as a team and finished really strong down the stretch to win our match 4-1," Ponich continued. "The highlight of the day for me was making a 20-footer on my 2nd to last hole to win my match 2&1.”
Brenchley defeated Luke Gutschewski on the 18th hole, going 2-up. Z. Jones dropped a 2-up decision to the Cyclone’s Dianchao Wu.