SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The No. 16 Virginia men’s golf team finished seventh in stroke play Sunday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., to advance to the match play portion of the NCAA Championships. It marks the first time since the NCAA switched to a match play format in 2009 to decide the team champion that UVA has advanced this far in the tournament. The Cavaliers’ previous best finish was 10th in 2017.
Virginia shot 3-under 277 during Monday’s final round, its best 18-hole score during the four rounds of stroke play. The Cavaliers 72-hole total was 11-over 1131.
It was a nerve-wracking finish as Stanford and Arizona State battled with the Cavaliers for the final position to advance. A couple of costly bogeys by each of those squads on their closing holes dropped them one shot behind UVA and put them into a tie for eighth place.
If there was a key score down the stretch for Virginia it came when sophomore Deven Patel rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt on his final hole to give the Hoos a one-stroke advantage on the leaderboard.
UVA’s 3-under team score was the third best among the 15 teams competing during the fourth round.
“Holy cow did those guys battle down the homestretch,” said 19th-year head coach Bowen Sargent. “It’s pretty cool. It is definitely pretty cool.
“We did a lot of work and put in a lot of preparation and we felt we knew this place pretty well before we even got here. Ben James, Brian Lee and Deven all played here during their junior golf careers so I think we knew what we were getting into. With the preparation the team put in, I don’t think we saw many surprises out there this week. We just needed to play consistent golf to advance and we did.”
UVA was led during the fourth round by a 2-under performance of freshman Ben James. He shot 4-under 276 for the tournament to place sixth. That is the second-best finish by a Cavalier at the NCAAs, matching current PGATour professional Denny McCarthy’s 2014 performance.
Virginia freshman Bryan Lee and senior Pietro Bovari both shot 1-under 69 during the final round, their best scores of the week. Lee was 22nd overall at 2-over 283 while Bovari was 58th at 290.
Patel was UVA’s other counting player, shooting 1-over 71 to place 52nd at 288. His final round score was also his lowest 18-hole total during the event. George Duangmanee carded a round of 78 and was 79th overall at 297.
It marked the 11th time in 13 tournaments this season James has posted a…
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