WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Augusta State turned in is best effort of the NCAA Championships Saturday morning when the Jaguars completed their third round which was suspended Friday by inclement weather.
Play was halted for the afternoon wave of 15 teams at 4:15 p.m. Friday afternoon due to severe thunderstorms and resumed again at 4:55. The official suspension came at 5:55 p.m. when teams and spectators were alerted to clear the course and immediately evacuated to Mackey Arena due to a tornado warning. Teams were released from Mackey at approximately 7:50 p.m. following the expiration of the tornado warning.
ASU posted a third-round total of 14-over 302, the second-best round among the 30-team field on Friday/Saturday. In fact, the Jaguars closed their third round Saturday morning by shooting one-under-par on the back nine, with freshman Henrik Norlander, junior Tarik Can and sophomore Mitch Krywulycz combining for nine birdies.
The Jaguars failed to make the cut at 936 (326-308-302/+72) for the first time since 1999 and finished one shot behind Oregon and Mississippi State.
Norlander again paced ASU with a one-over 73 while Krywulycz and Can each booked three-over 75’s. Sophomore Jake Amos managed a 79 and fifth-year senior Keith Guest, playing his final collegiate round, signed for an 83.
Norlander qualified for the final round as in individual and entered Saturday afternoon’s play tied for eighth at four-over 220. He finished in a tie for 29th at 16-over 304 (75-72-73-84).The blustery conditions led to an average score on Saturday of 78.19. For the week, the average score was 77.4, nearly five-and-a-half shots over par.
UCLA senior Kevin Chappell shot a four-over 76 to wrap up medalist honors and help the fifth-ranked Bruins hold off Stanford and Southern California for the team title. The national championship is the first for UCLA since 1988 and first-ever individual title for a Bruin.
Chappell, who made par on the brutal, 484-yard, par-four 18th, finished the tournament at two-under 286 and was the only player in the 156-player field to shoot under par for the four rounds. The Pac-10 Player-of-the-Year also led after Wednesday's first round and had a three-round total of six-under 210 after a third-round 68.
Indiana's Jorge Campillo and Washington's Nick Taylor tied for second, three shots back at 1-over 289. Clemson's Kyle Stanley, who trailed Chappell by four strokes after Friday, shot a10-over 82 Saturday to fall from second into a tie for seventh. Stanley was the runner-up last year to Southern California’s Jamie Lovemark.
UCLA finished the four-day tournament with a 42-over-par total of 1,194, one stroke better than second-place finisher and defending champion Stanford, which was five strokes back on Friday. Southern Cal finished two strokes back at 1,196. Ten-time NCAA champion Oklahoma State and Clemson rounded out the top five.
The Bruins’ 1,194 total was three strokes higher then Clemson’s winning score of 1,191 in 2003 at Oklahoma State’s Karsten Creek Course and marked the highest winning total since the NCAA began utilizing its current 72-hole format in 1968.
The top five teams were separated by just seven shots, the closest stroke margin for the top five teams at the national tournament since 2003, when Clemson won by two shots over Oklahoma State.
Not a single team in the 30-team field broke 300 all four days on Purdue University’s 7,450-yard, par-72 Kampen Course.
Final, full-field results are available at at www.golfstat.com.