Defending NCAA Champion Oregon, Illinois to meet in East Lake Cup final
Oregon's Wyndham Clark
(Golfweek Photo)
ATLANTA, GA (November 1, 2016) -- During Monday's
stroke-play qualifying at East Lake Golf Club Oregon
finished 13-strokes behind top-seed Vanderbilt.
However for Oregon the beauty of golf shined through
on Tuesday as the Ducks took down top-seed Vanderbilt
to advance to the championship match of the East Lake
Cup where they will face last years champion and two-
seed Illinois.
"This is so valuable for our team to figure out what
they are made of and give them this experience and
hopefully come early June or late May we will get this
experience again and we will better for it. So this is
really huge for us," Duck head man Casey Martin said.
Oregon, the defending national champions,
defeated No. 3 Vanderbilt 3-2. The key to advancing for
Oregon was claiming victories in the first three matches
as Edwin Yi (2&1), Ryan Gronlund (2 up) and Wyndham
Clark (2 up) picked up points.
"I just built on past experience and I have been in a
lot match play situations and down the stretch you have
to keep your routine," Wyndham Clark said. "I was
proud of myself because I found the fairway on my last
two holes and that is ultimately what got it done."
Illinois, the two-seed this week, and top-ranked
team nationally defeated three-seed and No. 23 Texas
in the semifinals by a final tally of 3-2. The sides split
the first four matches and things weren't decided until
Illinois' Dylan Meyer handled Taylor Funk of Texas 2&1.
Meyer, who won the Western Amateur in August,
never trailed in the match and took the lead for good
with a 9th hole win.
When asked about the keys to his decisive victory
Meyer told Golf Channel, "Staying consistent, sticking
with the game plan and staying consistent throughout
the round."
Illinois also got semifinal victories from Michael
Feagles and Edoardo Lipparelli (2&1). Feagles had
maybe the most impressive victory of the day as he
defeated the medalist winner from a day ago, Scottie
Scheffler 3&1 in the lead match.
"I think all the coaches agree that you want to win
this thing, you want to win everything that you play in,"
said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "But we also want
to eternally work on some things that will make us
better moving forward."
Championship Match Draw
Match 1: Nick Hardy (Ill) vs. Edwin Yi (Oregon)
Match 2: Michael Feagles (Ill) vs. Ryan Gronlund
(Oregon)
Match 3: Edoardo Lipparelli (Ill) vs. Nigel Lett (Oregon)
Match 4: Dylan Meyer (Ill) vs. Wyndham Clark (Oregon)
Match 5: Bryan Baumgarten (Ill) vs. Sulman Raza
(Oregon)
Wednesday will also include the consolation match
between Vanderbilt and Texas.
View results for East Lake Cup
ABOUT THE
East Lake Cup
Started in 2015 and hosted by the historic
East
Lake Golf Club Atlanta, this collegiate, three-day
match
play competition features the top-performing
teams
from the previous year's NCAA Men’s
Golf Championships. There is an individual award for
the low 18-hole scorer
in the seeding round.
View Complete Tournament Information