Odom leads Howard to PGA Works Collegiate Championship
05 May 2022
by Golfweek
see also: Gregory Odom Jr. Rankings
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Courtesy of Howard University
Make it two in a row for
Greg Odom Jr. While you’re at it, make it a team title for Howard University.
Odom and Howard teammate
Everett Whiten Jr. finished 1-2 to lead the Bison to the team title at the 2022 PGA Works Collegiate Championship on Wednesday at Union League Liberty Hill in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. They were the only two golfers to finish under par, with Odom’s 6-under 208 total leading the way. Whiten finished 2 under.
“I was just trying to keep hitting golf shots,” said Odom. “Coming into today three shots back, I knew my guys would stay strong. Today we overcame obstacles. This is huge for the Howard golf team.”
In August of 2019, Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry announced that he’s supporting men’s and women’s golf teams at Howard for six years, making it the first time Howard men’s golf competed at the Division I level.
In its second year of existence, the Howard men’s golf team capped its season with the MEAC Championship and now the PWCC title.
“The older guys did their jobs,” said Howard coach Sam Puryear. “But the younger guys. … what they did was invaluable. It was a total team effort. All the dreams came true. We said we wanted to win an HBCU national championship one day, and we got it.”
It’s a quick turnaround for Odom, who is playing this week’s Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour on a sponsor exemption at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm starting Thursday. He’s grouped with Bo Hoag and Michael Gligic for the first two rounds in Potomac, Maryland.
Other winners include Cal State Dominguez Hills in the men’s Division II championship, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which repeated in the women’s division but with a different coach, as Pat Stephens started as the team’s head coach in January. Lucie Charbonnier of Corpus Christi was the women’s medalist.
Delaware’s Sparky Ariyachatvakin won the men’s individual division and Kansas State’s Haley Vargas won the women’s for those golfers entered not on a team.
PGA Works features 30 teams from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions from across the nation.
by Todd Kelly, Golfweek