One player is currently ranked among the top three male amateur golfers in the world. The other one shot 92 in college tournament and when he was headed for another score leading with a “9,” his coach took his card away.
Two golfers with vastly different college histories ended up being a locked in a tense, entertaining showdown on Monday in the fourth and final round of stroke play in the NCAA Men’s National Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. Even if their two rounds were being played a good mile away from each other.
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Oklahoma State junior Preston Stout has a pedigree that included seven career college wins heading into the NCAAs, with four coming this season, and an appearance for the U.S. on last year’s Walker Cup team. Alabama sophomore William Jennings enjoyed a campaign of three wins, the Marana Regional among them, but only after playing in only one tournament for the Crimson Tide a year ago when he lost all semblance of his swing.
In the end, the difference between the two players was a few inches. Stout, who birdied five of his first 11 holes but lost a five-shot lead during his back nine, produced a deft pitch to three feet on the par-5 18th hole to make birdie to shoot three-under 69 and finish at 14 under. Tied for the lead heading into his last hole after draining four birdies in a six-hole stretch, Jennings came up short of the green on his approach at his last hole, the par-4 ninth. His too-firm pitch went eight feet past the hole, and he missed the putt to make bogey and shoot 69.
“I wish I wouldn’t have made it so stressful coming down the 18th,” Stout said in the aftermath. “But that’s just why we practice, that’s why we go to Oklahoma State, for moments like that. Yeah, it was awesome. Something I’ll never forget.”
Stout learned of Jennings’ final score as he hit balls on the driving range and let out a whoop. “Oh my god, c’mon!” he exclaimed. His Cowboys teammates were gathered around a phone and, with a delay, found out seconds later and celebrated.
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Jennings didn’t have anybody to immediately console him other than Alabama head coach Jay Seawell because the Crimson Tide didn’t make the 54-hole cut that trimmed the field to 15. A clearly disappointed Jennings told Golf Channel, “I fought pretty hard. I [double bogeyed the fourth hole] and told myself if I just go seven under the rest of the way I have a chance to win. It’s tough to come up short like that.”
If Jennings had completed his comeback, it would have been the most remarkable champion’s story in recent memory. In a circumstance first chronicled by Golf Channel, Jennings, a well-recruited player competing in his first college tournament as a freshman, shot a 92. The next day, he was on his way to another score in the 90s, and Seawell intervened, took his card and withdrew him from the tournament.
“He was drowning, so as his coach, I threw the life preserver in,” Seawell told Golf Chanel. “I remember the conversation I had with him. I said, ‘I can’t wait until these tears turn into smiles.’”
It was posited that the 6-foot-6 Jennings messed up his swing by changing the length of his clubs. That got fixed, and Jennings came into the 2025-26 campaign more confident. He broke through with the first of his three season victories with a season-opening win last September in the Folds of Honor Collegiate, and he bookended that by winning the Marana Regional heading into championship week.
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Stout, ranked No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, has had a career thus far that didn’t see such a low ebb. He contributed strongly to OSU’s team national championship last year and has been one of the most successful players in a current crop of precocious talent that includes WAGR No. 1 Jackson Koivun of Auburn (who had six wins this season) and No. 2 Ben James of Virginia.
In three years in Stillwater, Stout has eight wins and 14 top-3 finishes. He became the 10th player in program history to capture the NCAA individual title and the first to do so since current LIV golfer Matthew Wolff in 2019.
OSU coach Alan Bratton walked the entire round on Monday with Stout and said immediately after the trophy ceremony, “what a treat to be standing next to a guy doing that and trying to make some history.”
Of how Stout steeled himself for his final pitch and the curling three-foot birdie putt he made, Bratton said, “I told him he was ready for the moment, and he’s built for that. I’ve seen him do it any number of times. So, everybody in the field wanted to be the spot he was, and that was awesome to watch him get it done.”
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It was late afternoon of thick drama in the hills of Carlsbad, Calif., with the team competition also going down to the wire. In fact, four teams were forced into a playoff, and it was Stanford and UCLA who advanced to match play, while Tennessee and North Carolina were eliminated.
In addition to the two California teams, No. 1 ranked Auburn earned the top seed by 26 under for four rounds, followed by No. 3 Texas (23 under), No. 11 Vanderbilt (12 under), No. 2 Florida (11 under), No. 5 Oklahoma State (11 under) and No. 12 Arizona (three under).
The quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be played on Tuesday, followed the final on Wednesday.
The most relieved team to reach match play had to be 30th-ranked UCLA. At one point it had a 12-shot cushion on the cut line, only to collapse on its back nine to fall into the playoff that came with the four schools tied at two under.
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Each team sent all five of its players to play on five different holes, with each score counting. The cumulative scores were added up, and it only took one rotation for Stanford (even par) and UCLA (one over) to prevail. Tennessee had one player make a double bogey on the 14th hole and a North Carolina golfer suffered a double at 16. The only birdie among the 20 players was made by Stanford’s Dean Greyserman.
UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian wore a wide, if exhausted smile after enduring a roller-coaster ride.
“Overflowing with emotion right now. The last, like, three hours has been crazy,” he said. “We had a huge cushion making match play and then a colossal collapse coming down the stretch. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll give it credit to our guys. Like, you could’ve been big-time discouraged after that. They weren’t. They came out, they were fired up and ready.”
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