GLEN ROSE, Texas (April 17, 2022) – Not many golf teams could lose a three-time All-American and a tournament winner and not miss a beat the following season, but Oklahoma Christian find itself in that enviable position as it enters the postseason.
With a lineup that includes players who have combined for nine collegiate tournament wins, No. 8-ranked OC will seek to repeat as the Lone Star Conference champion when the LSC Championship tournament begins a three-day run on Monday at Squaw Valley Golf Club's Apache Links.
The tournament will be contested using the same medal/match-play format used by the NCAA in its national tournaments. Players will compete in 54 holes of stroke play on the par-72, 7,063-yard course on Monday and Tuesday to determine the individual champion. The top four teams at that point will advance to match play, with a semifinal match on Tuesday and the championship match on Wednesday.
Gone from last year's LSC title-winning OC squad are All-American
Trevor Norby as well as
Alex Motes, who combined to win six tournaments during their time with the Eagles. But freshmen
Exequiel Rodriguez of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and
Oskari Nikku of Tuusula, Finland, have stepped in to fill those starting spots, joining returnees
Mateo Pulcini,
Andres Brictson and
Alejandro Armijo.
Pulcini, a sophomore from Rio Cuarto, Argentina, has two tournament wins this season and Armijo, a junior from Rio Rancho, N.M., has one. Brictson, a senior from Merida, Mexico, has five wins during his career at OC, one of those in the 2019 Heartland Conference Championship tournament.
OC has stood atop the NCAA Division II South Central Region ranking since March 2020. The Eagles have won four of their nine tournaments, finished no lower than fourth in any event (even the Division I tournament in which they played in October) and is 27-3-0 this season against LSC competition. Thus, the Eagles likely would be considered the favorite this week, but they should have plenty of stout competitors.
No. 17-ranked Midwestern State (Texas) was last season's LSC runner-up and has one of Division II's top players in Jake Doggett. Texas A&M-Commerce and St. Mary's (Texas) both received votes in the most recent Division II coaches' poll and (playing on its home course) Texas-Tyler beat the Eagles in the final match of a medal/match-play event last month.
OC will be grouped on Monday with Midwestern State and Cameron and will tee off starting at 8 a.m. Temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-50s at the start of the round, but should rise to the mid-70s by the end of the afternoon. Skies should be clear and winds should be light.
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