(STILLWATER, Oklahoma / May 29, 2018) – The Oklahoma State men’s golf team advanced to the match play semifinals at the NCAA Championships Tuesday morning with a 3-0-2 win over eighth-seeded and second-ranked Texas A&M in the quarters. It marks the fourth time since the championship added the match play portion in 2009 that the Cowboys have reached the semifinals.
The Cowboys came out on top of a tightly-contested contest in which two matches went to a playoff and all five went to at least 18 holes. Starting at the first tee at 2:20 p.m., OSU will face No. 5 seed Auburn in the semifinals.
Freshman Matthew Wolff tallied the first point of the match for the Cowboys, knocking off Texas A&M’s Dan Erickson 4 and 3. After halving the first hole, Wolff went 1-up thanks to an Erickson double and never looked back. The Cowboy won the sixth, eighth, ninth and 10th to climb as high as 5-up before Erickson took the 11th. Wolff halved the next four holes to secure the match.
Viktor Hovland added to OSU’s lead with a win over Chandler Phillips in 19 holes. The Cowboy sophomore parred the 17th to take the hole and go 1-up heading to the 18th, but Phillips answered with a birdie on 18 to square the match and force a playoff. Hovland only needed one playoff hole to lock up his win, carding a par on the 10th to take the decisive hole.
Freshman Austin Eckroat sealed the win for the Cowboys in his 1-up win over Texas A&M’s Brandon Smith. Eckroat had a 2-up lead after a birdie on the 14th, but Smith battled back to eventually square the match on 16. After the two halved the 17th, Eckroat came up clutch with a birdie on the par-5 18th to send the Cowboys to the semis.
As the match was clinched Kristoffer Ventura was in a playoff to win his match, while Zach Bauchou was 1-down heading to the 18th.
Fans can watch semifinal action on Tuesday afternoon live on Golf Channel, or follow live scoring on golfstat.com.
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