DETROIT (May 16, 2022) – With one of the early tee times on Monday for the first round of the NCAA Division II Championship, Oklahoma Christian had the opportunity to lay down a score and see how it held up the rest of the day.
The answer was quite well, even if the seventh-ranked Eagles could have been excused for thinking for a time that it might not. But the challenging par-72, 7,056-yard TPC Michigan course took its toll on the 20-team field all day long and OC's 296 score (8-over) landed the Eagles in a tie for fourth place.
The top eight teams after Wednesday's third and final round of stroke play will advance into match play to determine the team championship. OC trailed the first-round leader, No. 23 Indianapolis (Ind.), by eight shots. Top-ranked Barry (Fla.) was second at 290, with unranked Colorado State-Pueblo third at 295.
The next four teams – No. 2 Arkansas Tech, No. 8 Georgia Southwestern, No. 10 Florida Southern and No. 11 Central Missouri – were separated by only three shots, and all were within four shots of the Eagles.
Not long after the Eagles finished their round, the tournament was delayed for a time due to lightning in the area.
"The golf course is winning," OC coach
David Lynn said. "It's very punishing if you don't hit fairways. The rough is hard to control distance out of. You have to hit fairways and greens and you'll make bogeys if you're out of position. I thought our guys did a great job of hanging tough and finishing strong today."
Only 12 of the 108 players finished at or below par, another measure of the difficulty of the course. One of them was OC sophomore
Mateo Pulcini of Rio Cuarto, Argentina, who opened his round with 12 straight pars before a birdie on the par-5 No. 13. His only bogey came on the par-3 No. 15, but he rebounded with another birdie on the par-4 No. 16.
Pulcini's 71 put him in a tie for fifth, only two shots behind the leader, Oliver Mast of Indianapolis.
OC freshman
Oskari Nikku of Tuusula, Finland, had four birdies – tied for fifth in the field – but also had six bogeys en route to a 74. That put him in a tie for 24th.
The Eagles' other three players had two birdies apiece. Freshman
Exequiel Rodriguez of Buenos Aires, Argentina (75) was tied for 33rd, senior
Andres Brictson of Merida, Mexico (76) was tied for 44th and junior
Alejandro Armijo of Rio Rancho, N.M. (79) was tied for 74th.
OC will be grouped again with Missouri-St. Louis and Georgia Southwestern for Tuesday's second round and will tee off at 12:05 p.m.
RESULTS
