With Top 4 Seeds Gone, It's Auburn vs. FSU in NCAA Final

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- On Monday, the University of Illinois completed its conquest of the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championships. The Illini put together a four-day total of 6-under-par 1146, and that was 16 better than the second-place total of 1162 by Vanderbilt. So the Illini earned the No. 1 seed for the match-play part of the tournament, which started Tuesday at the Omni La Costa North Course. 

And a lot of good being the No.  1 seed did them. 

Top-seeded Illinois, along with No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Virginia and No. 4 North Carolina, lost in the quarterfinal round of match play. No. 8 Georgia Tech got a crucial 3&2 victory from Hoshiri Tai, who had won the individual portion of the NCAA tournament on Monday, and that sealed a 3-1 upset for the Yellowjackets over the top-seeded Illiini. (One individuall match was left unfinished, because its result no longer mattered.) That was just part of the carnage that wiped out all four of the top seeds before lunch on Tuesday.

No. 2 Vanderbilt took on No. 7 Ohio State, and the underdog Buckeyes got the decisive point in a 3-1-1 victory from Adam Wallin. The senior from Sweden was the 54-hole leader in the stroke-play part of the tournament, but shot 76 on Day 4 and was relegated to a tie for eighth. But on Tuesday, he beat Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent, the absurdly long-hitting junior -- and 2022 NCAA individual champion -- who is generally considered the college player with the most PGA Tour potential. It took 19 holes, but the point that Wallin took from Sargent was the difference in the Buckeyes' upset victory over the Commodores.

Another player with enormous PGA Tour potential is Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton. He, like Sargent, had multiple chances to make the pars or birdies that would have gotten him a share of the NCAA individual individual title -- or maybe won it outright -- on Monday, but he and Sargent both failed to take advantage of them, and they ended up in a six-way tie for second.. On Tuesday, Clanton won the feature match in No. 5 Florida State's 3-1 victory over No. 4 North Carolina, beating Austin Greaser 2&1. Greaser is a former Western Amateur champion and the 2021 U.S. Amateur runner-up.

Auburn came into the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 team in the NCAA Division I rankings, having won nine times and finished second three times during the 2023-24 college season. But the Tigers ended up sixth in stroke play at Carlsbad. That meant a quarterfinal match against No. 3 Virginia, and the individual match that got the most attention was the one between the Tigers' fabulous freshman, Jackson Koivun, and Virginia's Deven Patel. Anyone who saw the final round of stroke play on Monday will remember that Koivun could have tied Georgia Tech's Tai for medalist honors if he could have made a birdie on the 18th hole. His second shot was nearly perfect. It probably would have ended up 10 orr 12 feet past the cup, but it hit the flagstick and ricocheeted into the front bunker, a spectacularly unlucky break. He got up and down for a par. Nevertheless, that unlucky bounce off the flagstick cost him a chance at claiming medalist honors.

On Tuesday morning, Koivun took on Patel and managed to win 1 up, which sealed a 3-1 victory for Auburn over the Cavaliers.   

So then, in the afternoon, after all the lower seeds had won in the morning, it was the two higher-seeded teams remaining -- No. 5 Florida State and No. 6 Auburn -- that won and claimed the spots in Wednesday's final. Florida State got another crucial point from Clanton in its 3-2 victory over Georgia Tech. He beat Christo Lamprecht, the No 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (Sargent is No. 2, Koivun is No. 4, and Clanton No. 8). The score in that feature match was 2&1 for Clanton. But the deciding point in the Seminoles' 3-2 victory over the Yellow Jackets was supplied by Tyler Weaver. He edged Kale Fontino in 19 holes.

Auburn won by the same 3-2 score, and that match came down to Koivun vs. Wallin. Koivun won the SEC individual championship this year and has been given enough honors to fill a notebook, and he was 2 up with two holes to go. But Wallin won the 17th and 18th holes and forced Koivun into extra holes, and it wasn't until the 21st hole that Koivun finally claimed the deciding point.


NCAA Men's Division I Championships

At Omni La Costa North Course

Par 72, 7,538 yards

Carlsbad, Calif. 

Match play 

Semifinals 

No. 5 Florida State def. No. 8 Georgia Tech 3-2

No. 6 Auburn def. No. 7 Ohio State 3-2

Quarterfinals

No. 8 Georgia Tech def. No. 1 Illinois 3-1 (1 match unfinished)

No. 5 Florida State def. No. 4 North Carolina 3-1 (1 match unfinished)

No. 7 Ohio State  def. No. 2. Vanderbilt 3-1-1

No. 6 Auburn def. No. 3 Virginia 3-1 (1 match unfinished)

Stroke-play qualifying

Final stroke-play results (the top 8 teams advanced to the match-play portion)

1. Illinois                      293-287-282-284--1146

2. Vanderbilt                297-286-290-289--1162

T3. Virginia                  290-287-291-295--1163

T3. North Carolina       291-296-292-284--1163

5. Florida State            299-289-286-290--1164 

6. Auburn                     293-293-293-292--1171

7. Ohio State               294-294-289-297--1174

8. Georgia Tech          292-301-292-292--1177

9. Oklahoma               301-302-286-289--1178

10. Tennessee            305-292-294-289--1180

11. Florida                   295-302-287-297--1181

12. E. Tennessee S.   296-297-298-291--1182

13. Texas                     296-301-292-296--1183

14. Baylor                    297-299-292-301--1189

15. Arizona                 290-298-298-308--1193

Did not make the 54-hole cut

T23. Notre Dame       296-305-306--907

27. New Mexico         299-306-307--912   


Individuals (*-indicates players who made the cut as individuals)

1. Hiroshi Tai, Georgia Tech            67-77-70-71--285 (-3)

T2. Tyler Goecke, Illinois                 73-73-69-71--286

T2. Gordon Sargent, Vanderbilt       75-69-70-72--286

T2. Max Herendeen, Illinois            73-70-71-72--286

T2. Ben James, Virginia                  73-71-69-73--286

T2. Jackson Koivun, Auburn           71-72-72-71--286

T2. Luke Clanton, Florida State       71-72-72-71--286

T8. Adam Wallin, Ohio State            68-74-69-76--287

T8. Karl Vilips, Stanford                   69-68-76-74--287*

T8. Palmer Jackson, Notre Dame   77-68-72-70--287
        
T25. Ben Warian, Minnesota         72-72--72-76--292*

Missed the 54-hole cut -- 220

T136. Nate Stevens, Notre Dame    78-82-77--237

T141. Carson Herron, N. Mexico     86-75-79--240