Baylor Men's Golf Finishes Fifth at Chapel Hill Regional, Clinches Spot in NCAA’s

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Baylor men's golf outlasted a hard-charging Alabama team to claim a fifth-place finish with a 15-under 845 at the Chapel Hill Regional on Wednesday afternoon.

Making a sixth appearance in the last eight seasons, the Bears were led by senior Johnny Keefer, who finished tied for second with a 12-under 198, just a shot back of North Carolina's Austin Greaser. In the process, Keefer set a new NCAA postseason program record, three shots better than Cooper Dossey’s 201 at the Stanford Regional in 2017.

After posting 15-under, the Bears were tied with Alabama and could only watch as Alabama played the final hole. At the last, the Crimson Tide made a bogey to drop out of the tie and lift the Bears into the NCAA Championship for the 11th time in program history and the sixth time in the last eight seasons. Eighth-seeded Clemson used a birdie on its final hole of the tournament to jump ahead of East Tennessee State and take the team title with a 25-under 815. North Carolina finished third at 20-under, and Georgia Tech finished fourth at 17-under.

THE RUNDOWN

Keefer got off to a patient start with seven-straight pars but broke through with a lone eagle putt at No. 17. After making the turn, the All-American birdied Nos. 1 and 2 to get to 13-under, taking the individual lead in the process. A bogey at No. 6 and a birdie at No. 7 left him tied for the lead entering his final hole at No. 9, but carded a bogey to finish tied for second.

Tyler Isenhart battled his way to a 2-over 72 and finished tied for 16th. The senior made early bogeys at Nos. 11, 14 and 16, around a birdie at No. 13 to make the turn at 2-under. On the second nine, Isenhart settled in with five-straight pars and a birdie at No. 6. One final bogey at No. 8 dropped him back to 5-under for the championship.

Zach Heffernan carded his NCAA postseason best with a 3-under 67 and a tie for 16th. After a bogey on his opening hole of the day, the junior put the hammer down, playing his next 16 holes at 5-under par, highlighted by birdies at Nos. 17, 18, 2, 3 and 6. One last bogey at No. 9 closed his best finish at an NCAA postseason event.

Davis Ovard put a bow on a solid start to his NCAA postseason career with a 1-over 71 on Wednesday. The freshman rolled in a birdie at No. 10 in a round that began on Tuesday. Upon resumption of play on Wednesday, he carded a couple of bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15 before getting back to even with a birdie at No. 16. He added a couple more bogeys at Nos. 1 and 5 but played his final four holes at 1-under with a birdie at No. 6 to finish with a 7-over 217 and a tie for 54th.

Jonas Appel completed his career-first NCAA postseason round on Wednesday with a 1-over 71 of his own. The sophomore carded a couple of bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11, followed by a birdie at No. 12 to start his round on Tuesday. When he resumed on Wednesday, he carded a double-bogey six at No. 16. From that point, he settled in and played bogey-free over his final 11 holes, highlighted by birdies at Nos. 2 and 3.

HIGHLIGHTS

• BU’s 15-under 825 came up just two shots shy of the program’s all-time NCAA postseason scoring mark (825).
• The one-stroke margin of advancement was Baylor’s smallest since they claimed a spot in the 2010 NCAA Championship in a playoff at the South Central Regional in Bryan.
• Baylor had three players finish in the top-16 for the first time in a postseason event since the 2017 Stanford Regional.
• Five of BU’s six players who played this week carded a new career-best postseason round.
• Seven of BU’s 15 possible rounds this week rank inside the top-20 postseason rounds in program history.
• Keefer’s tie for second was the highest regional finish by a Baylor individual since Cooper Dossey finished second at the Stanford Regional in 2017.
• In addition to setting the program postseason scoring record, all three of Keefer’s rounds rank among the top-10 NCAA postseason rounds in program history.
• With his 19th-career top-10 finish, Keefer moves into a tie with Joakim Mikkelsen for the fourth-most in Baylor history.

QUOTABLE

Head coach Mike McGraw on making it back to the NCAA Championship — “We are going back, which is really exciting. We have been looking forward to La Costa all year long, but we hadn't thought about it, because all we've been thinking about is how to advance, which we did that today. I would say with Clemson — who got in as the eight seed — winning, this became easily the hardest regional to advance from. You had one of the best teams in the country in North Carolina, and we only finished five shots behind them, and we barely advanced. It's incredible how tough this regional was. I loved the golf course. The setup was great. And we were very fortunate to come out where we were qualified. We’re really excited about it.”

McGraw on playing good golf entering the NCAAs — “At least you know you can do it. At least you know, you've played some good rounds and you've had some good tournaments, so I'm really excited about that. And we have Jonas Appel, who actually grew up on the golf course at La Costa, so it'll be a special homecoming for him but also a great advantage for us, especially in our practice round for him to tell us where to hit it or not hit it. I’m just really proud of the way he came in and subbed in and shot 71 to help lift his team to the championship. It was pretty fantastic.”

STAT OF THE DAY

71.43— Johnny Keefer lowered his career scoring average to 71.43, moving into first on the program's all-time list. Keefer jumped ahead of the record-holder, Jimmy Walker, and his mark of 71.55.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears will tee it up in the NCAA Championships, May 24-29, on the Champions Course at the Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, Calif.