Note: This is one of a series of articles about the top stories in OC athletics during the 2021 calendar year.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 30, 2021) – Much as when Oklahoma Christian was a member of the NAIA, OC's men's golf team has established itself as one of the top programs in NCAA Division II, one that consistently earns national and regional recognition.
The success and recognition came fast and furious in 2021. The Eagles won the Lone Star Conference title, had two players earn All-America honors (one on the first-team list) and topped the NCAA's South Central Region entering the postseason, a run of success that ranks as the No. 2 story in OC athletics for the year.
OC topped the South Central Region rankings in spring 2020 when the season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Eagles found their way back to the No. 1 position a year later, posting some impressive credentials. Entering the NCAA postseason, OC had an 83-5-2 record against Division II competition and had lost to only one Division II team (Central Missouri) since October 2020. OC won five tournaments and finished second in two others during the 2020-21 campaign to that point.
Along the way, the Eagles won the university's first LSC title in any sport, holding off Midwestern State (Texas) on the final day to earn the crown at Tierra Verde Golf Club in Arlington, Texas. Four Eagles finished in the individual top 10 in the 65-man LSC field, with third-place
Trevor Norby and fourth-place
Mateo Pulcini earning all-tournament honors.
OC led the South Central-West Super Regional at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash., through two rounds, but slipped into sixth place the final day and missed qualifying for the NCAA Championship by two shots.
Even with that disappointment, the honors still came in droves for the Eagles. Norby, a senior from Carlsbad, Calif., was the only Division II player chosen to play on the U.S. men's team in the prestigious Arnold Palmer Cup and helped earn the first team point as that squad won.
He also was a finalist for the Division II Jack Nicklaus Award, given to the national player of the year, and made the Golf Coaches Association of America's first-team honor list for a second straight season. It was his third All-America selection in as many seasons at OC.
Joining Norby on the All-America list was Pulcini, a Rio Cuarto, Argentina, product who earned honorable mention after being named as the LSC's freshman of the year. Both also made the All-South Central Region team, along with current OC senior
Andres Brictson of Merida, Mexico.
In July, current OC junior
Alejandro Armijo qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship, earning himself the opportunity to play on one of the nation's elite courses at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. He was only the third active OC player ever to qualify for the event, joining Rhein Gibson (2006) and Brictson (2019).
The Eagles' success carried over into the fall 2021 semester. Coach
David Lynn's Eagles won all three Division II tournaments in which they played during the fall – the Missouri Southern Fall Invitational, the NCAA Division II South Central-West Regional Preview and The Hrnciar – and finished a strong fourth in a 17-team field in an otherwise all-Division I event hosted by Arkansas State.
OC was sixth in the final Division II coaches' poll of the fall semester, matching the program's highest national ranking since becoming a NCAA member with the 2012-13 academic year.
