Illinois celebrates their second straight East Lake Cup title
(East Lake Cup Photo)
ATLANTA, GA (November 2, 2016) -- The East Lake Cup
is just two years old and Illinois remains as the only
winners of the cup. On a picture perfect Wednesday the
top-ranked team
in the country defeated reigning national champion
Oregon 3-2 in the championship match at the East Lake
Golf Club.
All week long the freshman played a big roll in the Illini
success and it was first year player Bryan Baumgarten
who earned the title clinching point with a 5&4 triumph
over redshirt senior Sulman Raza. The match was tight
early but back-to-back hole outs from green side
bunkers on Nos. 8 and 9 allowed Baumgarten to open
up a 2 up lead that he would only extend.
"The match was a bit back and forth early and to (hole
out) on the 8th just fired me up," Baumgarten told Golf
Channel. "And then my assistant coach and I joked
around that I could do it again on No. 9 and I did."
Spurred on by the hole outs Baumgarten won the 10th,
12th and 14th hole to close things out.
"I struggled during stroke play and yesterday and today
I knew I just needed to go out and play golf and win or
lose go and see what would happen," continued
Baumgarten.
Illinois, playing as the two-seed, also got victories from
junior Nick Hardy who defeated Oregon sophomore
Edwin Yi 5&4 and sophomore Edoardo Lipparelli who
was able to best Duck redshirt sophomore Nigel Lett
2&1.
The win for Illinois concluded what was a dominant fall
season as they won four of the five events they played
in. As a result the stage is set once again for a deep run
in the NCAA's.
"That is our goal again, to make match play (at the
NCAA's) and once you do that anything can happen,"
Illinois head coach Mike Small said. "But we have to get
better and each one of these guys knows that they have
to get better if we have a mission that we are going to
get to staring next to spring and maybe later this fall
but we have to earn it, it certainly isn't going to be
given to us."
In the finals Oregon got wins from redshirt sophomore
Ryan Gronlund 5&4 over freshman Michael Feagles
while senior Wyndham Clark outlasted junior Dylan
Meyers 1 up.
Meyers was 2 up after 12 holes but Clark was able to
surge into the lead with wins on Nos. 13, 15 and 15.
"We gave it our best but unfortunately we didn't have
our best and to beat a team like Illinois you have to be
really good and we were just a little short today. But the
experience being out here and with (Golf Channel)
televising it is incredible what the value that adds,"
Oregon head coach Casey Martin said.
Illinois moved onto the finals with a win over Texas
while Oregon defeated Vanderbilt.
The consolation match was won by two-seed Texas 4-1
over top-seeded Vanderbilt.
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