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Baylor Men's Golf Set to Return to the NCAA Championships

May 25, 2023
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Baylor men’s golf will make its 10th appearance in the NCAA Championship when it opens play Friday morning at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The Bears' last championship appearance came at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., in 2019. Friday will mark BU's fifth appearance in eight seasons under Mike McGraw. Making his 21st appearance at the NCAA Championships as a coach, McGraw never gets tired of being one of the last teams in the country still standing.

“I don't take this for granted, and I've been to a lot of them,” he said. “It is a great feeling. I love being here. I love the feeling you get when you go to a tournament and say this is a championship. You ask yourself, what kind of golf did I bring here this week, and how do I take that golf and kind of map it out on a golf course I haven't seen in a while? It might be tougher than I've seen in a while, so the opportunity is amazing. I don't take it for granted.”

In his fourth season, Johnny Keefer will make his first appearance in the NCAA Championships at the No. 1 position. Keefer is coming off a tie for 15th at the Morgan Hill Regional, where he fired a pair of rounds at par or better, including a second-round 69, which tied his career-best postseason round. The senior has played at No. 1 in every event over the last two seasons. Still, the San Antonio native feels no extra pressure.

“We're participating as a team,” he said. “Golf is an individual sport, but I think the team, as a whole, is way more important. I could have looked at last week as a really big disappointment because, going into the final round, I was in contention. But at the same time, I couldn't have been any happier. We're here this week, so I think it's the same as every other tournament. I obviously want to play my best, but I'm looking out for the team, and I think everyone else is doing the same, and we're all in this together.”

Drew Wrightson will play at the No. 2 position for the sixth tournament in a row. Four of his last seven rounds have been at par or better, with three in the 60s. The last time we saw the sophomore, he turned in a bogey-free 69 in the final round of the Morgan Hill Regional.

Tyler Isenhart enters Grayhawk with four-straight tournaments with at least one round at par or better, including an opening-round 69 at Morgan Hill in the regional. The senior leads the team in par-3 scoring average (3.07) and total pars (371).

Luke Dossey will make his third-straight appearance in the lineup. The senior fared well in BU’s last trip to the desert, finishing tied for 20th at the ASU Thunderbird Collegiate in April at Papago Golf Club.

Zach Heffernan tied for 32nd in his NCAA regional debut in Morgan Hill. The sophomore has made each of the last four starts in the lineup, and he is looking forward to competing at Grayhawk.

“We played it [Grayhawk] last year when we played in Arizona State's tournament,” he said of his familiarity with the course. “I like it. It’s kind of tight off the tee, but it’s probably not going to play near as hard this week as the last time we were here. But we were lucky to play a tough course at regionals, so I think we got lucky, and [The Institute] prepared us for this week.”

The Bears will be paired with Arkansas and Duke for the first two rounds and tee off on No. 1 beginning at 9:27 a.m. CT on Friday. The teams will play with the same teams for the first two rounds and then be re-paired for round three based on their scores.

After Sunday’s third round, the 30-team field will be trimmed to the top 15 for Monday’s final round of stroke play, with the top eight advancing to the match play quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Once available, tee times, live stats and scoring will be available at Golfstat.com. For more information on Baylor Men’s Golf, follow @BaylorMGolf on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Tags: Golf, Baylor
Discussion from...

Baylor Men's Golf Set to Return to the NCAA Championships

1,676 Views | 5 Replies | Last: 10 mo ago by Jack Bauer
Jack Bauer
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After 1st round, we are in last damn place by a lot. Looking like we will be out on Sunday.
Big_Pumpin
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4 birdies from 5 players ain't good.
Big_Pumpin
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Only good news is that course is playing difficult so if you can put together a good round you will move up considerably.
Jack Bauer
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Still in last place after 2nd round.

Season will come to an end tomorrow and then time to countdown to football.
Jack Bauer
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I see BYU played their 3rd round on their own yesterday as they do not complete on Sundays.

Should be interesting for some of our matchups.
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