West Virginia University golfer Kaleb Wilson began his appearance at the NCAA Golf Regional, competing through 18 holes at Poplar Grove Golf Course in Amherst, Virginia on Sunday and Monday. Read more Wilson competes in round one of NCAA Golf Regional below.
The Mountaineers did not qualify for the regional as a team, leaving Wilson as the sole WVU participant in the event.
Day one extended into Monday morning, as weather caused the start time to be delayed, in turn leading to the competition on the first day being suspended due to darkness.
Wilson, the second NCAA individual qualifier in school history shot a 71 (+1). The Knoxville, Tennessee native is currently tied for 27th place.
Wilson, the Nemacolin Collegiate Invitational winner, who also placed 34th at the Big 12 championship, will play 54 holes against nine other golfers. The best performer who is not a part of one of the teams to advance from the regional receives one of the six individual spots at the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California on May 23-28.
There 30 teams and six individual golfers will compete for NCAA glory. La Costa, host of five NCAA Championships, has hosted more championships than any other site in history.
Tennessee
Overall the first placed team at the Amherst regional was Tennessee at -4, with Jackson Van Paris (-6) being the individual leader. Following the Vols in first was Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Florida Gulf Coast and Arizona.
Around the Big 12, numerous other programs and their golfers were also in action.
Arizona
Matej Baca of Arizona had the best showing of any Big 12 golfer, as the Czech freshman’s even score placed him in a tie for 20th place with seven other golfers.
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His teammate and fellow countryman Filip Jakubcik as well as their teammate Zach Pollo were tied with Wilson in 27th, as eight total golfers shot a +1 through the first 18 holes. Following that were two more Wildcats, as Johnny Walker came in at 55th place with a +4, while Tianyi Xiong’s +6 saw him in 67th.
Auburn Regional
In the Auburn regional, TCU finished the first round in eighth at +1, with a three-way tie for the fifth qualifying spot one stroke ahead of them. Joe Padgin had a strong showing for the Horned Frogs, finishing in a tie for tenth with a -1 performance, while his teammate Charlie Wylie was one stroke behind him in a tie for 20th. TCU had two golfers tie for 31st with a +1 showing, Toby Wilt and Jack Beauchamp.
Texas Tech had a stellar showing at the Urbana Regional, finishing two strokes behind hosts Illinois in second with a -5. Oklahoma State placed just behind a three-way tie for fifth with a +2 in seventh place, while Houston’s +11 saw them in 12th.
TTU’s Calum Scott tied Cincinnati’s Ryan Ford for third with -3 scores, while a nine-way tie for sixth place included Gaven Lane of Oklahoma State and Ben Gregg of Texas Tech at -2. 12 golfers posted even scores to come in 15 place, among them five from the Big 12; Filip Fahlberg-Johnson of Oklahoma State, Texas Tech’s Tim Wiedemeyer, Connor Graham and Charles DeLong, and Hudson Weibel of Houston.
Arizona State
Arizona State was exceptional at the Bremerton regional, finishing day one in second with -19. Following them was Colorado (+1) in third, as well as Kansas State in fifth with +2, Utah (+3) in sixth and Kansas in ninth with +9. Cooper Schultz (-4) finished in a tie for first, followed in third by Peer Wernicke of ASU and Gabriel Palacios of Utah at -3. Josele Ballester of Arizona State and Dylan McDermott shot -2 to come in seventh, while ninth place included Gunnar Broin of Kansas (-1). One stroke behind them was Ian McCrary of Kansas State, who saw himself in a tie for 14th.
BYU were the lone Big 12 participant, sitting just our aside the top five with a +7 in sixth place. Zac Jones of the Cougars was even with the par through 18 holes, tying him with four others for eight place, while Cole Povich (+1) was tied for 12th.
