College Golf

PEPPERDINE WINS!!!

Pepperdine got the chance it was denied last year and made the most of it. The Waves, who were ranked No. 1 in the nation in 2020 when the rest of the season was cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic, defeated Oklahoma, 3-2, in the match-play final to win the 2021 NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Pepperdine claimed its second NCAA title, also having won it in 1997.

“It was hard to be that level (last year), have a chance at winning the National Championship, and be stopped short by Covid-19,” said Coach Michael Beard, a 2002 Pepperdine graduate from Palm Desert who returned to his alma mater in 2013 to coach the Waves.

“But we told our guys that even though last year was a lost chance, we have next year to look forward to, and they all came back better than they were. They wanted to prove something.”

Clay Feagler, a redshirt senior from Laguna Nigel, provided the Waves with the winning point when he pulled out a 1-up victory over Ben Lorenz of Oklahoma by halving the 18th hole with a four-foot par putt. Left-hander Joe Highsmith, a junior from Lakeland, Wash., gave Pepperdine a 4-and-3 victory over Garret Reband, and William Mouw, a sophomore from Chino, beat Quade Cummins, also by 4 and 3. Jonathan Brightwell of Oklahoma defeated Dylan Menante, a sophomore from Carlsbad, 1 up, and the Sooners’ other point came when Logan McCallister downed Joey Vrzich, a senior from El Cajon, also by 1 up.

“It’s just surreal to have to come down to No. 18 and win the final point here,” said Feagler, who could have left Pepperdine after last season. “The last three holes were so unnerving. I didn’t play all that well a year ago and wanted to come back and make up for it, but this is just unreal.”

It wasn’t easy. Pepperdine was ninth after the third round of stroke-play qualifying and had to climb into the top eight to have a chance to play for the National Championship, but rallied with a big final day to finish third. “We really stepped up big in that fourth round, which put us in the third slot,” Beard said. “The scores were so high that day, we probably could have made it with an average day because we were so close to the number, but we really went low.”

“We still would have made it, but we really came out to play in that fourth round and we rode that momentum into the next two days. We actually have a solid six-man team. We kept Joe Highsmith out the first day and then put him in, and he went 3-0 in match play. He’s tough to beat.”

In the quarterfinals of match play, the Waves defeated Florida State, 3-1-1, and in the semifinals they downed Oklahoma State, 3-0-2.

DYLAN MENANTE CARLSBAD, CA SAGE CREEK HS

CLAY FEAGLER LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA LAGUNA HILLS HS

JOE HIGHSMITH LAKEWOOD, WA BELLARMINE PREPARATORY SCHOOL

JOEY VRZICH EL CAJON, CA CHRISTIAN HS NEVADA

Oklahoma took out Illinois, 3-2, in the quarterfinals, and upset top-seeded Arizona State, also by 3-2, in the semifinals, but couldn’t handle Pepperdine in the final.

Pepperdine loses Feagler and Menante, but has four of its top six players back, plus incoming freshman Ian Maspat of San Diego.

“We also have another good player, Derek Hitchner, coming back, so we have a good crew to give it another shot,” Beard said. “It would be nice to make a run and it’s hard to go backto-back, but we have strong four returning and that will be new motivation for them.”

Pepperdine earned its shot in the NCAA National Championships by finishing fourth in the NCAA West Regional at Tumble Creek Club at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Wash. East Tennessee captured the Regional title with a score of 280270-288—838, 14-under, followed by USF at 278-283-287—848, Wake Forest at 278-287-285—850, Pepperdine at 279-289-283—851 and Florida at 284-290-284—858.

Long Beach State finished 12th at 288-298-296—882, as the top five teams qualified for the national finals.

Shiso Go of East Tennessee State claimed the individual title at 70-68-67—205, while Vrzich of Pepperdine shot 69-7265—206 to tie for second with Alex Fitzpatrick of Wake Forest, who finished at 67-68-71—206, and Tristan Mandur of Utah totaled 68-68-71—207 to tie for fourth with Archie Davies of East Tennessee State, who wound up at 68-63-76—207. Rounding out the scoring for the Waves were Mouw, who shot 72-71-70—213 to tie for 16th with Feagler, who finished at 70-71-72—213, Highsmith in a tie for 39th at 68-75-77—220, and Menante in a tie for 61st at 76-76-76—228.

Earlier, the Waves won the West Coast Conference Championship by 24 strokes over Brigham Young at Reflection Bay Golf Club in Henderson, Nev., as Feagler and Menante tied for the individual title, while Highsmith tied for third, Vrzich tied for seventh and Mouw tied for 13th.

WILLIAM MOUW CHINO, CA ONTARIO CHRISTIAN HS

STANFORD FRESHMAN HECK WINS NCAA WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL TITLE

Rachel Heck went all the way to the head of the class in her freshman year at Stanford.

Heck, from Memphis, Tenn., claimed her fifth straight victory and sixth of 2021 by becoming the first Cardinal to win the NCAA Division I Women’s Individual Championship, defeating Emma Spitz of UCLA by one stroke at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I dreamed about this, but you have to realize there are 140 amazing players here and it’s four days,” said Heck, who became the ninth freshman to claim the title by finishing with six straight pars.

NCAA Division I Women’s Individual Championship winner Rachel Heck

From left-to-right Assistant Coach Maddie Sheils, Aline Krauter, Sadie Englemann, Brooke Seay, Angelina Ye, Rachel Heck, and Head Coach Anne Walker

“Our Fall Season was cancelled and we weren’t even on campus because of Covid19, so we were just happy to get a chance to play. There’s no way I thought then that I would be standing here holding this trophy.”

Heck posted a score of 69-67-70-74— 280, 8-under-par, while Spitz finished at 72-70-71-68—281, and Angelina Ye of Stanford was third at 77-69-65-71—282.

Standford’s Rachel Heck

Heck led Stanford, coached by Anne Walker, to the top-seed in the stroke-play qualifying that led to the sudden-death match play portion of the tournament, which determined the national champion.

However, the Cardinal were upset by Arizona State, 3-2, in the quarterfinals and Mississippi went on to claim the NCAA Championship.

A few days later, Heck was named winner of the 2021 ANNIKA Award as the best player in women’s college golf.

“It is unreal,” said Heck, who broke the NCAA women’s single-season scoring average record this season with a mark of 69.72, beating the 69.76 set by Lauren Stephenson of Alabama in 2018. “I remember in high school the ANNIKA Award Instagram page followed me and I was freaking out. My biggest role model in golf is Annika (Sorenstam).”

Earlier, Heck and Ye finished 1-2 and led Stanford to victory in the NCAA Women’s West Regional Championships at Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto.

Stanford posted a score of 272-271281—824, 28-under-par, while Wake Forest was second at 286-280-288—854, followed by Oklahoma State at 287-282286—855, Virginia Tech at 282-283-291— 856, Arizona at 289-289-279—857 and USC at 288-283-289—860.

The top six teams advanced to the national finals.

USC had beaten Stanford by five strokes to capture its second straight Pacific 12 Conference Women’s Championship, and Heck claimed the individual title at Stanford.

The Trojans, who won the Pac-12 title in 2019 but were unable to defend last year because of the Coronavirus pandemic, claimed their eighth conference championship with at score of 283-287-279— 849, 3-under-par, followed by Stanford at 289-286-279—854.