Oklahoma State senior Trent Whitekiller enjoyed his barbecue, fried chicken, fresh salad, sweet tea and cookies a little more than everybody else during a weather delay at noon Saturday at The Honors Course.
He’d already won his match in the NCAA Championship semifinals after taking the first seven holes.
“I thought it was a misprint,” OSU sophomore Peter Uihlein said. “That helped us get off to a great start.”
Whitekiller’s 5 and 4 humbling of Oregon’s Isiah Telles launched the Cowboys into the team finals today, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
“Winning 10 and 8 crossed my mind,” Whitekiller said. “Of course it does when you’re playing like that.”
The top-ranked Cowboys dispatched top-seeded Oregon 3.5-1.5, then waited around to watch the results of the late semifinal match.
Their opponent is Augusta State, which beat Florida State 4-1.
“I asked our guys early in the week, ‘If you could have one team to play in a national championship, who would it be?'” ASU coach Josh Gregory said. “They all said Oklahoma State.”
To win their first Division I national championship, the Jaguars must take down the 10-time champion Cowboys.
“This is Augusta State with 5,700 students against Oklahoma State and their 20 national championships, or however many they won,” Gregory said. “This is our first time in this position. It is a story of David and Goliath.
“I can promise you that our guys are not scared.”
But they certainly celebrated after Henrik Norlander chipped in for eagle on No. 17 to win his match and Patrick Reed finished with a win on No. 18.
ASU teammates cheered, parents hugged parents and Gregory had a little water in his eye that wasn’t from the pollen or sweat falling from his forehead.
“You’d better celebrate,” he said, “because if you’re not excited to be here, something is wrong with you. I promise you there will be a bigger celebration if we win tomorrow.”
In contrast, OSU hugged and high-fived but otherwise carried about its business like famous alumnus Barry Sanders after scoring a touchdown.
“If you know anything about the history of OSU golf, you know it’s big,” Whitekiller said. “That it’s something that we carry on our shoulders with pride, not as a burden.”
Today one of these teams will win a national championship. The first to three points wins. It will either be history repeating itself or a new chapter added to the books.
OSU’s championships have all come during four-round stroke-play tournaments. The Cowboys were bounced in the first round last year, when the match-play format was introduced.
“You like to learn from those sort of experiences, but you also like to put them in the rearview mirror,” McGraw said. “Then move on down the road, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Each of the five head-to-head matches counts the same. But the final two feature four of the top college golfers in the country.
The matchup of No. 1 golfers today will be ASU’s Henrik Norlander against OSU’s Morgan Hoffman. The No. 2s are ASU sophomore Patrick Reed against Peter Uihlein. They’ve been paired in the same group before.
“We’ve gone back and forth,” Reed said. “We both have a similar game. We hit it a long ways, and sometimes we hit it crooked.
“It’s going to be a battle tomorrow.”