Baylor MGOLF’s Keefer Advances in NCAA Championship as BU’s Season Comes to an End

Sun May 28 23:40:51 CDT 2023

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 28, 2023

Baylor MGOLF’s Keefer Advances in NCAA Championship as BU’s Season Comes to an End
Keefer is the first Baylor men’s golfer since 2009 to play as an individual in the NCAA Championship
For more information, contact: Matt Roberts, 254-227-2280, WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu<mailto:WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu>

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Baylor men’s golf saw its season come to a close on Sunday with a 12-over 292, notching a 30th-place finish at Grayhawk Golf Club. However, the Bears will have representation in the final round, as Johnny Keefer's 2-under 68 allowed him to advance as one of the top nine individuals.

Keefer enters Monday in a tie for 32nd place with a 54-hole total of 4-over 214. The senior is 13 shots behind the leader Ross Steelman but just four shots out of the top-15, which would earn him All-America honors.

Illinois remains at the top of the leaderboard entering the final round with a 6-under 834. Fellow Big 12 competitors No. 10 Oklahoma and No. 17 Texas also missed the cut Sunday, with fifth-ranked Texas Tech playing off for the final spot in the fourth round on Monday morning.

THE RUNDOWN
Keefer opened the front nine with four-straight pars and a birdie at No. 5 to climb under par. A bogey at No. 6 followed his birdie to fall back to even where he finished the front nine. The senior caught fire on the back nine with three-straight birdies at Nos. 10, 11 and 12 before his hot streak was briefly interrupted by a bogey at No. 13. Keefer got back on the birdie train with a long putt at No. 15. The birdie at 15 put him safely inside the individual cutline, so much so that a bogey at No. 18 had little impact on his advancement to Monday's round.

Tyler Isenhart finished his NCAA Championship debut in a tie for 94th after a 3-over 73 on Sunday. The senior recorded a bogey at No. 1 and added two more at Nos. 5 and 7 to make the turn with a 3-over 38. Isenhart found his rhythm on the back nine with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 to get back to 1-over. A pair of bogeys in his final three holes would drop him back to 3-over for the round and 11-over for the championship.

Luke Dossey shot a 5-over 75 in the third round to end his championship in a tie for 135th. The senior opened with a pair of pars but got on a run of three-straight bogeys to drop him back to 3-over on the day. A brilliant sand shot at the drivable par-4 fifth hole allowed him to convert an easy birdie putt to get a shot back and make the turn with a 2-over 37. Dossey’s back nine started with four straight pars followed by a pair of bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15. He closed the round with a bogey at No. 18 to sign for his 75.

Drew Wrightson finished his sophomore season with a 6-over 76 and a 148th-place finish at the NCAA Championship. The sophomore made bogeys at Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 around a birdie at No. 4 to make the turn with a 4-over 39. His back nine started similar to the front with a bogey at No. 10, but he followed that up with a pair of birdies at Nos. 11 and 13. He closed with two more bogeys at Nos. 17 and 18 to finish out his week in Scottsdale.

Zach Heffernan shot an 8-over 78 Sunday to record a 149th-place finish. The sophomore got off to a steady start with four-straight pars, but an errant chip shot at No. 5 resulted in a double bogey, his only blemish on the front nine. Heffernan made a birdie at No. 8 to make the turn at just 1-over. On the back nine, he made another double bogey at No. 11 and followed it with bogeys at Nos. 12, 13 and 15 to fall to 6-over on the round. A third double bogey of the day at No. 18 dropped him to 8-over and 23-over for the championship.

HIGHLIGHTS

  *   Baylor improved its score for a third-straight day.
  *   Johnny Keefer became the first Baylor Player to shoot in the 60s in the NCAA Championship since 2017 when Matthew Perrine and Hunter Shattuck shot 67 and 68, respectively, at Rich Harvest Farms.
  *   Keefer will be the first BU player to compete as an individual in the NCAA Championships since Cody Paladino in 2009.
  *   Keefer now has five-career postseason rounds at par or better.
  *   Keefer's third-round 68 ranks among the top 12 postseason rounds in program history.

QUOTABLE
Head coach Mike McGraw on the NCAA Championship experience: “I think it was a great experience for these guys. For one, we're going to have all of these players back next year. We were probably a little ahead of schedule getting here this year, I mean, we played very well at the regional, but we just didn't perform well this week. I'm really excited that all five or six of these guys will be in the mix next year. It was a great experience to play — what I thought was a US Open golf course this week. It wasn't quite as hard as the US Open, there wasn’t quite as much rough as you might have [at a US Open], And it certainly wasn’t a US Open-style course. But man, those greens were tough. So that was another great experience for them to get to play a really challenging golf course.”

On Johnny Keefer’s 68 and advancing to the final round as an individual: “Johnny is a high achiever. He really wants to be a great player, just like all these guys do. He’s done it before during his career, and tomorrow, he really has a chance to go out and be an honorable-mention All-American with a top-15 finish. He needs a pretty good round, but I believe he's got it in him. He's hitting the ball absolutely beautifully, and he rolls the ball so well on the greens. I just think every putt he hits is going to go in. I’m really proud of how he led the team all year, which he's done most of his career but certainly this week. He just played beautifully.”

WHAT’S NEXT
Keefer will play the fourth and final round as an individual. He will tee off at 2:12 p.m. CT, and Golf Channel will have live coverage beginning at 4:00 p.m. CT. Live stats and scoring can be found at Golfstat.com.<https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=player&tid=26002>

For more information on Baylor Men’s Golf, follow @BaylorMGolf on Twitter, 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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