Oklahoma's winning team (Oklahoma Athletics photo)
With sophomore Logan McAllister out front, Oklahoma won its first team title of the season at the Nike Collegiate Invitational. The Sooners built a 15-shot lead through two rounds at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore., and it was enough to keep them afloat on a day when Wake Forest made a hard charge from the second position on the leaderboard.
Oklahoma was 31 under after 36 holes, but after a 2-over 286 in the final round, dropped back to 29 under. Wake Forest was a bit more consistent, charging on Tuesday with an 8-under 276, the lowest final-round score of any team.
The problem was, it just wasn’t quite enough.
Alex Fitzpatrick, a GB&I Curtis Cupper, started the day strong for Wake Forest with four consecutive birdies from No. 4-7. He ended with a 6-under 65. Teammate Eugenio Chacarra did the opposite, closing with five consecutive birdies from No. 14-18 for a 3-under 68. The two finished T-10 and T-4, respectively.
Wake Forest only got as deep as 24 under, five shots short of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma counted only one under-par round on Tuesday, and that was a 1-under 70 from tournament medalist McAllister, a sophomore. He had three birdies and a double bogey on the day, but finished 54 holes at 11 under.
"So proud of Logan and his work," Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl said. "He has not been in our lineup for 10 months, had to retool his golf game and has done everything we have asked of him. Just very proud of his work this week and I know his confidence will be sky high moving forward."
Senior teammate Garett Reband finished third individually at 9 under.
"Our guys did a great job this week but all the credit goes back into the work we have been doing at home," Hyble said. "This group has been very competitive in practice and it showed up this week."
More than half of the 15-team field finished under par at the event. Clemson was 17 under in third and Oklahoma State rebounded from a 12th-place finish at the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational last month to finish fourth at 12 under this week.
Quotes from Oklahoma Athletics used in this report
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Nike Golf Collegiate
54-hole men's college tournament with team (best
four
scores out of five players) and individual
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