Baylor Men's Golf Closes Strong for a Fourth-Place Finish at Big 12 Championship

TRINITY, Texas – Johnny Keefer fired a final-round 69 on Wednesday to finish tied for sixth and boost Baylor to a fourth-place finish at the 2024 Big 12 Championship at Whispering Pines, its highest conference finish since 2002.

Keefer finished the week with a 5-under 283, earning Big 12 All-tournament Team honors for the first time in his decorated career. It was the best individual 72-hole Big 12 Championship score in program history at Whispering Pines, besting Joakim Mikkelsen’s 285 in 2012. Zach Heffernan and Tyler Isenhart also shot in red-figures, carding 2-under 70s on Wednesday. TCU’s Gustav Frimodt, Cincinnati’s Ty Gingerich and Oklahoma State’s Preston Stout shared co-medalist honors, shooting matching 9-under 279s.

Texas ran away and hid from the field with an 18-shot win over second-place Oklahoma. Texas' 25-under 1,127 was the second-lowest round in Big 12 Championship history, while the 18-shot victory tied for the fourth-largest margin in conference tournament history. 

THE RUNDOWN

Keefer got off to a steady start with four-straight pars, lipping out a couple of early birdie chances. He broke through with an eagle at the par-5 fifth but gave a shot back with his only bogey of the day at No. 6. The senior finished his conference career strong with a bogey-free back nine highlighted by a birdie at No. 12 and a long birdie putt at No. 18 to close out his 3-under 69.

Davis Ovard tied for 19th on the heels of a 3-over 75 in the final round. For the second round in a row, the freshman birdied each of the first two holes and added a third birdie at No. 5. He finished the front nine with bogeys at Nos. 6 and 7 to turn with a 1-under 35. The Frisco, Texas, native made just one par on the back nine. After opening with a birdie at No. 10, he carded back-to-back birdies at Nos. 11 and 12. A triple-bogey seven was the beginning of a four hole stretch he played at 6-over. He righted the ship with a birdie at No. 17 and finished with a par at No. 18.

Heffernan carded his best round of the week and pulled into a tie for 28th. An early birdie at No. 2 put him in red figures before dropping his first and only shot of the day with a bogey at No. 6. Making the turn at even, Heffernan carded two more birdies on his inward half at Nos. 12 and 15 to card his first under-par round in a Big 12 Championship.

Isenhart followed suit with a 2-under 70 of his own, tying for 31st in the process. The senior went out with a bogey-free 33 highlighted by birdies at Nos. 2, 5 and 6. He got to 4-under with a birdie at No. 14 before closing with bogeys at Nos. 16 and 18, shooting red figures in the final round of the Big 12 Championship for the second-straight year.

Jonas Appel made his Big 12 Championship debut with a 6-over 78 on Wednesday. Inserted into the lineup for the final round, Appel made an early bogey at No. 2 and turned at 4-over after a bogey at No. 6 and a double-bogey at No. 7. The sophomore battled back to 2-over with birdies at Nos. 10 and 12 but played his final three holes at 4-over.

HIGHLIGHTS

• 1,155 is Baylor’s lowest 72-hole score in Big 12 Championship History.
• Three-over is Baylor’s best Big 12 Championship score in relation to par in program history.
• The Bears’ final-round 284 was the second-best Big 12 Championship round in program history on a par-72 course.
• Baylor was one of four teams to have three or more players finish under par in the final round, joining Texas, Texas Tech and Cincinnati.
• BU led the field in par-3 scoring average this week at 3.18.
• The Bears were third best in par-5 scoring average (4.74)
• Keefer's final-round 69 is one shot off the best fourth-round score in program history at the Big 12 Championship (68).
• Keefer’s 5-under score is BU’s lowest individual Big 12 Championship score in relation to par since Garrett May shot 5-under at the 2019 Big 12 Championship at The Greenbrier.
• Ovard played the par-5s at 10-under this week, tying for the best par-5 scoring average in the field (4.38).
• Heffernan carded the second-best par-3 scoring average (2.94).

STAT OF THE DAY

2002 — The last time Baylor finished fourth at the big 12 Championship

QUOTABLE

Head coach Mike McGraw on the Final Round — “That was the round we needed. I think every tournament since the Aggie, even though the finishes might not be first, we know we're getting better and starting to yield the fruit of hard work. We still have a long way to go to be the team we want to be, but you can feel the energy, so I love that. The fact that they got a really good final round here is outstanding. It was our lowest round of the week when we needed it. We passed two teams today to finish fourth, behind three of the best teams in the entire country, so you can’t really ask for more than that today.”

McGraw on the depth of this team: “It really is fantastic. If we're fortunate enough to get sent to UT Golf Club, that would be unbelievable because we have guys that live there. But if we don't, I think our guys are getting a self-belief built. They feel like, no matter where they send us, just give us a regional, and we're going to be there, which I'm really thrilled about. This team has done a lot of work to rectify a slow start to the spring, and they never gave up. It was just, how can we get better? We knew we were better than those finishes early in the spring.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Baylor will learn its NCAA regional destination during the NCAA Men’s golf selection show next Wednesday, May 1, on Golf Channel at 1 p.m. CT. For more information on Baylor Men’s Golf, follow @BaylorMGolf on X, Instagram and Facebook.