AUSTIN, Texas – BYU men’s golf finished the NCAA Austin Regional in sixth after finishing tied for fifth with Wake Forest, leading to a sudden-death playoff at The University of Texas Golf Club on Wednesday. The Cougars carded rounds of 279-283-292–854 to finish 2-over-par for the tournament.
"It’s really difficult when you play solid most of the tournament and then fade down the stretch," BYU director of golf Todd Miller said. "It’s even worse when you do it to miss out on qualifying for a national championship. We’ve been fortunate enough the last couple of years to be able to move on to nationals and it surely felt like we would do it again the way the guys were playing."
Junior Zac Jones notched another top-10 finish as he carded rounds of 69-68-74–211 to finish 2-under and tied for ninth. Cooper Jones posted an even-par 213 with rounds of 70-73-70 to complete the tournament in a tie for 15th.
Peter Kim grabbed a top 20 finish as he tied for 20th carding scores of 68-71-75–214 for a 1-over-par total. Kenau Akina finished in 41st (76-71-73–220; +7) with Max Brenchley rounding out the scoring for the Cougars in 56th (72-76-76–224; +11).
After an even-par third-round score from Wake Forest, the Cougars found themselves spread across holes 10 through 14 to compete in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff to determine which team would punch their ticket to the NCAA national tournament.
On hole 10, Brenchley made a bogey, but C. Jones’s birdie on 13 brought BYU back to even-par. The rest of the Cougars carded pars on their respective holes, finishing one shot back of Wake Forest's 1-under total.
"This was surely not the way we wanted to end the season," head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "This is a great team and superb kids. We were sloppy the last five holes today and made it way too easy on the teams that beat us for the last two spots. This will sting for a while for both the coaches and players, but times like these are what make us better. I hope we can learn from our mistakes and be better next year. We are grateful to our seniors. We love those guys and what they’ve done for our team in their time at BYU."
"I’m grateful for the work each of our guys put in this season," Miller continued. "It is impressive how dedicated they are. I believe each of them will wake up tomorrow with a resolve to do it better next year."