Baylor MGOLF Moves up to 11th After Strong Finish on Saturday

Sat May 25 22:54:37 CDT 2024

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS- May 25, 2024

Baylor MGOLF Moves up to 11th After Strong Finish on Saturday
BU sits two shots inside the cut line entering Sunday’s third round
For more information, contact Matt Roberts, 254-227-2280, WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu<mailto:WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu>

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Baylor men’s golf shot an 11-over 299 to climb into 11th on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa.

Zach Heffernan carded his first round of even-par or better in five tries at the NCAA Championship, with an even-par 72. The junior moved up 59 spots into a tie for 53rd. BU’s Johnny Keefer leads the way for the Bears, currently tied for seventh with a 1-over 144. Stanford’s Karl Vilips leads with a 7-under 137.

Baylor is two shots in front of Stanford, who enters the third round in 15th place. At the conclusion of Sunday’s third round, The top-15 teams will advance to the final round of stroke play on Monday, with the top-8 after 72 holes moving on to match play on Tuesday. Virginia leads with a 1-over 577, while Florida State, Arizona and Ohio State round out the top-8 with 12-over 588s.

THE RUNDOWN
Heffernan made a quick birdie at No. 2 before dropping a shot with a bogey at No. 4 to make the turn with an even-par 36. The Boerne, Texas, native dipped back into red figures with a birdie at No. 10 but fell over par for the first time after bogeys at Nos. 13 and 15.  The junior closed strong with a birdie at No. 18 to finish his day at even par.

Keefer made seven pars to open his round on Saturday before carding a bogey at No. 8 for the second-straight day to make the turn with a 1-over 37. The senior added three more bogeys at Nos. 11, 13 and 14 through one of the toughest stretches on the golf course. Birdies at Nos. 15 and 17 pushed him back into the top-10 and helped the Bears move into the top 15.

Tyler Isenhart shot a 3-over 75, nearly a shot better than the stroke average on Saturday (75.72). The senior made eight pars on the front side interrupted only by a double-bogey at No. 4. Isenhart scratched a shot back at No. 10 with a birdie, before making a double-bogey at No. 12 and a bogey at No. 13 to drop to 4-over. He finished strong playing his final five holes at 1-under thanks to a birdie at No. 15 to pull into a tie for 54th.

Davis Ovard shot a 6-over 78 and sits tied for 67th after two rounds. The freshman played his front nine at 5-over with a double bogey at No. 2 followed by bogeys at Nos. 3, 4 and 8. His first birdie of the day came at No. 10 but was offset by a bogey at No. 11. A bogey at No. 14 was erased by a birdie at 15 before a final bogey at No. 18 dropped him to 6-over for the day.

Jonas Appel shot a 7-over 79, improving by seven shots from his first-round score. He played his first six holes at even par with a bogey at No. 2 and a birdie at No. 6, but two more bogeys at Nos. 7 and 9 saw him make the turn with a 2-over 38. He played his first eight holes of the back nine at 6-over with bogeys at Nos. 11, 15, 16 and 17 surrounding a double-bogey at No. 12. He closed strong with a birdie at No. 18 to jump into a tie for 146th.

HIGHLIGHTS

  *   11th place is Baylor’s highest position after two rounds at the NCAA Championship since 2017 when they were tied for seventh.
  *   Zach Heffernan shot even-par for the first time in his NCAA Championship career, besting his championship career-best of 76 last season.
  *   Johnny Keefer is tied for the fourth-most pars after two rounds (26).

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mike McGraw on the first round — “We're doing enough good to be in this tournament, honestly. We're only eight shots out of what would be eighth place and we’ve got two more rounds to get that done, which is very doable, so I'm really excited about that part. We left a lot of shots out there and there are so many controllable things we could have taken care of — non birdies on par fives, wedge bogeys and a few three putts here and there. I know golf's hard, I get it, I truly do. But those things are controllable and they're actionable. We've just got to figure out ways to save those shots. But I am excited because we're in the lead wave, which is huge. I would not want to be playing out here tomorrow afternoon. I want to be playing with the leaders in the morning.”

Head Coach Mike McGraw on team’s mindset entering the third round — “We know we left shots out there, so we just need to clean those up, because we're doing enough good stuff to where, if we will clean some things up, there's no doubt we're going to be competitive. I was pretty direct with the guys, I said ‘This is right here, It's your opportunity. Don't waste it by just throwing shots away.’ Golf is hard, so I'm not pretending that it's just an automatic snap of the fingers and you can do it, but it's right there for them. It's not like we're all searching for our game. Jonas [Appel] shot a 79 today, but it was probably the best you can hit it and shoot 79. He was putting on a stripe show today. So nobody's searching for the game. We've got plenty of golf out there, we just need to eliminate the things that that held us back today.”

WHAT’S NEXT
The Bears will play alongside East Tennessee State and Tennessee and tee off at 9:57 a.m. CT on hole No. 10. Live scoring and stats for each round can be found at Golfstat.com.<https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=29187> For more information on Baylor Men’s Golf, follow @BaylorMGolf on X, Instagram and Facebook.

—BaylorBears.com—

Matt Roberts | Associate Director of Athletic Communications (MBB/MGOLF/ WGOLF)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-227-2280
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