HUSKY GOLF SEASON UPDATE

Washington & Woolsey WIN!

Husky men battle the best in Pac-12 and pull out a win for the ages taking the team and individual titles at Aldarra CC

BY BOB SHERWIN • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE

FALL CITY, Wash. — As Washington’s Noah Woolsey dueled down the back nine with Stanford’s Barclay Brown at the Pac-12 Championship on April 27, the weight of the individual title as well as the team title grew heavier with each hole.

Brown made four birdies in a row, on Aldarra Country Club’s holes 12 through 15, while Woolsey double bogeyed the short par 4 17th. His lead had shrunk to just one stroke heading to the 438-yard par 4 18th, one of the toughest finishing holes in the state. But Woolsey, the Husky senior from Pleasanton, Calif., hit a dynamic approach shot to within 10 feet of the hole on 18. It was a golden shot that solidified both titles.

Woolsey, who shot a 3-under 68 for a three-round total of 276, parred the hole, as did Brown, to win by one. He finished two ahead of Oregon’s Yuki Moriyama. The 8thranked Huskies took the team title by three shots over 17th-ranked Stanford while 4thranked Arizona State finished third, eight strokes behind.

It marked the third title (first outright) for Woolsey this season to go with five seconds, two thirds and two fourth places. The other Huskies who can now call themselves Pac-12 champions were: Chaun Tai-Lin (T10, 2-over 286), Petr Hruby (T22, 5-over 289), Bo Peng (T22, 5-over 289), Taehoon Song (T24, 6-over 290) and R.J. Manke (T28, 8-over 292).

This is the seventh team title for the Huskies, the first since 2010.

“We made the shots we needed to make,” Huskies sixth-year coach Alan Murray said.

For Woolsey, winning the conference crown is no small feat. Some of the more prominent past winners are: Cal’s Collin Morikawa (2019, two-time major champion and former world No. 2), ASU’s Jon Rahm (2016, former world No. 1), Stanford’s Tiger Woods (1996, 15-time major champion, etc.) and ASU’s Phil Mickelson (1990, six-time major champion).

Noah Woolsey

Noah Woolsey

Noah Woolsey

Woolsey also joins four Huskies who have won the individual title since 1958. They include Clint Names (1961), O.D. Vincent (1988), Erik Olson (2005) and Darren Wallace (2009).

Woolsey, enjoying a three-shot lead after Brown bogeyed 16, drove behind a tree on 17. His line-drive approach to the green rolled off the back. It took him four shots, two chips and two putts, for a six and suddenly turned it into a dramatic final hole. Even the team title was not assured.

“It happened so quickly,” Woolsey said.

Woolsey’s drive on 18 sailed into the right rough, in a gully below the fairway, just inches from much thicker grass.

“I’m pretty comfortable off that tee. I played it like 200 times over the past five years,” Woolsey said. Aldarra has been the Huskies home course during his time at Montlake.

Murray saw no tension in Woolsey after the drive. “He came walking down the fairway, big smile on his face. He was enjoying it,” he said. “He made a super second shot. Really spectacular second shot. It was not an easy shot by any means. He deserves that. He really deserves that.”

“I had 168 yards and tried to play it at 150, in the middle of the green,” Woolsey said. "I hit a nine-iron. Pushed it a little. It came out perfect.”

Brown, whose approach came up well shot, 45 feet from the hole, missed his birdie putt by three feet. Woolsey rimmed the hole on his first putt then made a two-footer for championship, as his teammates rushed the green to leap on the Husky pacesetter.

The Huskies led all three days of the tournament, by four over ASU on the two 18-hole rounds Monday. On Tuesday, three Huskies, Woolsey, Peng and Lin, each birdied both 17 and 18 to lift the Huskies to a seven-stroke lead entering Wednesday’s final 18 holes.

Woolsey, who has already qualified for the Canadian Tour this summer, trailed Brown by one shot entering Wednesday’s finale. On the par-4 eighth hole, Brown lost his drive – and the lead – into the left rough. He couldn’t find his ball within the required three minutes so he had to re-tee and would make a bogey. Woolsey made a 10-foot par on the hole to take the lead he would not relinquish.

The NCAA announces the field for the NCAA Tournament May 4. The Regionals will be played at six different sites May 15-18.

Petr Hrub

Teddy Lin

RJ Manke