BYU makes 15-team cut at NCAA Men’s Golf Championships – Deseret News

Without even playing on Sunday, BYU’s men’s golf team advanced at the NCAA Golf Championships in Carlsbad, California.

Having played their “third round” on Thursday, before everyone else teed off, the Cougars’ score of 1-over 289 from that day was officially added on Sunday as the other teams in the 30-team field played their third rounds and it was good enough to ensure BYU will play in Monday’s fourth and final round of stroke play.

The Cougars made the 15-team cut for the final round with a 54-hole total of 878 (+14) and are in 12th place heading into Monday’s round. After Monday, the top eight teams will move on to the match play portion of the tournament, so BYU has some work to do if it hopes to realize a goal made before the season started of making match play.

Top-ranked Auburn leads the tournament at -10, followed by Arizona State (-6) and Oklahoma (-3).

There are three teams tied for eighth — Texas Tech, Ole Miss and Texas A&M — at +12. Virginia sits alone in 11th at +13, followed by BYU (+14), Pepperdine (+15) and Vanderbilt (+15).

As previously reported, Zac Jones led the Cougars on Thursday, shooting a 1-under 71 in BYU’s “third round.”

Only three teams — Auburn (-2), Texas Tech (-2) and Texas A&M (E) — shot a better round on Sunday than BYU did on Thursday, so in this instance it could be argued that playing a day before everyone else was not a disadvantage for the Cougars as it has been in previous years.

BYU’s Peter Kim, from Salt Lake City’s Skyline High, is tied for 22nd on the player leaderboard at +1.

Other Utahns in the field

Utah’s Braxton Watts, from Farmington, shot a 77 on Sunday and is tied for 108th place at +12 for the tournament. Watts played as an individual because the Utes just missed out on qualifying for the finals.

Arizona State’s Preston Summerhays, who grew up in Farmington, is tied for 22nd at +1 after shooting a 73 on Sunday.