EUGENE, Ore. – Baylor men’s golf finished in 27th place at the 2016 NCAA Championship after shooting 11-over-par 291 in Sunday’s third round at Eugene Country Club. BU recorded a three-round total of 40-over-par 880, which was 13 strokes back of the top-15 team cut to advance to the final round of stroke play.
Braden Bailey led the team and tied for 36th place individually after shooting even-par 70 in the final round to finish at 5-over-par 215 for the tournament. He came up two strokes short of earning one of the nine individual slots in Monday’s final round. Bailey, who was named to the PING All-Central Region Team on Sunday morning, made two birdies and seven pars over his last nine holes, including a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 9 to cap his round.
Hunter Shattuck shot 6-over 76 in the final round and finished tied for 96th place at 11-over 221, Andreas Gjesteby carded a 3-over 73 in his last collegiate round and tied for 103rd place at 12-over 222 and Matthew Perrine shot 7-over 77 to finish tied for 139th place at 18-over 228.
Freddy Andersen recorded his best score of the tournament with a 2-over 72 in his final collegiate round, which moved him up 15 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 125th place at 15-over 225. Andersen made three birdies on the day, tying Bailey for second-most on the team behind Perrine’s four birdies. Bailey made a team-high 11 birdies in the tournament.
The No. 26-ranked Bears (+40) finished in front of No. 1 Stanford (+44), No. 32 Purdue (+58) and No. 33 UAB (+62). Baylor’s third-round score of 11-over 291 tied for the 17th-best round of the day and was the team’s best score of the tournament.
The top 15 teams advanced to Monday’s final round of stroke play, and the top eight teams following Monday’s round will advance to match play. Vanderbilt (+5), Texas (+7), Southern California (+10), LSU (+11), Oregon (+12), Arkansas (+15), Arizona State (+17), California (+18), Oklahoma State (+19), Illinois (+19), Kentucky (+23), South Carolina (+25), Florida (+26), Louisville (+27) and Oklahoma (+27) all advanced.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Baylor’s 27th-place finish is the fifth-best at the NCAA Championship program history, trailing 1960 (t-9th), 2002 (19th), 1966 (24th), and 2010 (t-25th).
- Braden Bailey’s tie for 36th place was the third-best individual NCAA Championship finish in program history, trailing Lorenzo Scotto’s tie for 25th (2010) and Adam Meyer’s tie for 27th (2002).
- Baylor finished 20th in par-5 scoring at 6-under 4.80, tied for 22nd in par-3 scoring at 23-over 3.38 and 26th in par-4 scoring at 44-over 4.24.
- Baylor’s 36 birdies were 16th-most in the 30-team field, and the Bears’ 151 pars tied for 19th-most.
- Bailey made birdie on the 192-yard, par-3 14th hole, which played as the toughest hole on Sunday with an average score to par of +0.52. Only eight of 156 players made birdie on the hole on Sunday.
- Matthew Perrine made three consecutive birdies between the second, third and fourth holes.
- Baylor’s four counting scores all made pars on No. 7 in the third round. The Bears had played the hole at 8-over in the first two rounds, with three pars, six bogeys and a double bogey.
STAT OF THE DAY
36th – Braden Bailey’s tie for 36th place was the third-best NCAA Championship individual finish in program history, trailing only Lorenzo Scotto’s tie for 25th place in 2010 and Adam Meyer’s tie for 27th place in 2002.
TOP QUOTE
“I’m really proud of these guys. We made a lot of progress from the fall that was pretty dismal,” head coach Mike McGraw said. “They were very respectful, won some tournaments and did an amazing job last week at the regional just to get here. We probably weren’t quite ready for this golf course. I think we were just a little overmatched on the course, and we didn’t handle it very well. We didn’t have a single under-par round this week, so it’s obvious the golf course beat us. We expected great competition – these were the best teams in the country. We weren’t quite ready for the challenge this year, but I believe with the kids we have coming in and the kids we have coming back, we should be very competitive next year, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.”
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor heads into the offseason and will return to active in September. The Bears return three of the five players who made the lineup for postseason play and have three highly-ranked recruits signed for the 2016-17 season. Follow @BaylorMGolf on twitter for updates throughout the year.
