Baylor men’s golf will look to defend its first-ever No. 1 national ranking when it returns to action this weekend at The Maxwell. The two-day, 54-hole tournament runs Friday and Saturday on the par-70, 7,102-yard course at Oak Tree Country Club in Edmond, Okla.
Baylor is No. 1 in the latest Golfweek rankings, marking the first time as the nation’s top team in program history, and the Bears are No. 3 in the latest GolfStat rankings. The Maxwell features a 14-team field of No. 45 Augusta, Baylor, No. 25 Colorado, East Carolina, No. 49 Liberty, Memphis, No. 48 New Mexico, North Texas, No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 2 Oklahoma State, SMU, UCLA, UTSA and Wichita State.
Friday’s first round is an 8:30 a.m. CT shotgun start and the second round will follow immediately after the conclusion of the first round. In a deviation from traditional collegiate tournaments with players from each team spread across five pairings, The Maxwell features all five players from each team in a single pairing, which allows coaches to remain with their entire lineup throughout the round.
Fox Sports Southwest and Fox College Sports Pacific will broadcast The Maxwell live on Friday, 1:30-6:30 p.m. CT. Chad McKee provides play-by-play with analysis by Golfweek’s Lance Ringler and former Oklahoma golfer and pro Hunter Haas. Sooner Sports TV will deploy 15 cameras and utilize state-of-the-art cell bonding transmissions provided by LiveU to transmit signals back to the SoonerVision studios in Norman, Okla.
Baylor has ascended to No. 1 nationally by posting an 88-5 head-to-head record over its last seven tournament. Third-year head coach Mike McGraw’s squad has claimed tournament titles at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate, The All-American and the Linger Longer Invitational. The Bears also placed second at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate, the Querencia Cabo Collegiate and the Aggie Invitational, and BU took third place at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate.
Braden Bailey leads the team with a 70.26 stroke average, followed by Cooper Dossey at 70.52, Garrett May at 70.83, Matthew Perrine at 71.22 and Hunter Shattuck at 71.30. Those five players, who are all among the top 100 in the Golfweek collegiate individual rankings, have been in the Baylor lineup for all eight tournaments this season. They’ve combined to shoot 73 of 115 rounds at par or better.
Bailey ranks No. 27 nationally, Dossey is No. 31, May is No. 36, Perrine is No. 64 and Shattuck is No. 81. Bailey is playing No. 1 in the Baylor lineup for the seventh time in nine tournaments this season. Perrine is playing No. 2, his highest spot this season, while Dossey is No. 3 for the first time. May is playing at No. 4, and Shattuck is in the No. 5 spot for the first time this season.
