SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Twelve players were within four shots of the leaders as they made the turn in the final round of stroke play at the 2022 NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf Championship on Monday, setting up for a frantic finish in the desert.
Five players were tied for the lead at even par, with two players in the clubhouse – Parker Coody (Texas) and Ryan Burnett (North Carolina) – and the final group of Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Oklahoma State), Chris Gotterup (Oklahoma) and Gordon Sargent (Vanderbilt) on the 18th tee. Chacarra and Sargent each made par to advance to a playoff with Coody and Burnett, with Gotterup making bogey to fall back into a tie for fifth at 1 over with Arizona State’s Cameron Sisk, Pepperdine’s William Mouw and North Carolina’s David Ford.
Sargent, a freshman from Birmingham, Alabama, made birdie on the first playoff hole to claim medalist honors and become the ninth freshman to win the individual national title since USC’s Jamie Lovemark in 2007. Sargent is the second freshman in the span of a week to claim medalist honors at the NCAAs, following Rose Zhang of Stanford.
NATIONAL. CHAMPION.#AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/CWUN8sWGFr
— Vanderbilt Men's Golf (@VandyMGolf) May 31, 2022
“You’re hoping everyone else misses but you definitely feel like you have to make it,” Sargent said of the playoff with a laugh. “Even when everyone misses you have to take advantage of the opportunity and coach and I had a good read on it and luckily it caught the left left side and fell in.”