CARLSBAD \u2014 The University of San Diego arrived at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa as the last team to make the NCAA Division I Men\u2019s Golf Championships and spent most of the week playing like a team that had no interest in leaving.<\/p>\n
The Toreros survived a regional playoff just to get here. They made the 54-hole cut on the number. They gave themselves a Monday with real stakes on La Costa\u2019s North Course.<\/p>\n
They just couldn\u2019t make the run last one more day.<\/p>\n
USD combined for a 22-over 310 in Monday\u2019s fourth and final round of stroke play, finishing 15th at 24 over and missing the eight-team cut for Tuesday\u2019s match play quarterfinals. The Toreros were attempting to reach match play for the first time in program history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obviously not what we wanted to do,\u201d USD coach Evan Emerick said. \u201cBut I always say, \u2018We\u2019re never failing, we\u2019re always learning.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n
The ending, harsh as it was, should not erase the climb.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, USD shot 1-over 289 and tied for 12th at 2-over 866 with LSU, Tennessee and Stanford, making the top-15 cut on the number. It marked just the third time San Diego has advanced past 54 holes as a team at the NCAA Championships, and the first since coach Tim Mickelson\u2019s 2010 team did so.<\/p>\n
That 2010 team also came painfully close to the next step, tying for eighth in stroke play before losing in a three-team playoff for a spot in match play.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s team returned to La Costa chasing that same threshold, but Monday offered little traction.\u00a0Still, the Toreros left with another marker of how far the program has climbed in Emerick\u2019s second season.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking it back-to-back years here is something that\u2019s really difficult to do, and I think we\u2019re one of the youngest teams here,\u201d Emerick said. \u201cWe made it back, and last year we finished dead last, and this year, we make it to the fourth round and finish 15th. It\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freshman Reid Piron led USD\u2019s final round with a 1-over 73.<\/p>\n
Ian Maspat (Scripps Ranch High School), the lone senior in the lineup, closed his NCAA championship with a 10-over 82 and finished tied for 49th. Maspat had been USD\u2019s best golfer for most of the week, opening with a 6-under 66 on Friday to share the first-round lead and then shooting 2-under 70 on Sunday to move back to 6 under for the tournament.<\/p>\n
He entered Monday tied for seventh, becoming the first Torero to sit inside the top 10 after 54 holes at the NCAA championships since Alex Ching was tied for second in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played great for most of the week,\u201d Maspat said. \u201cThere were just some bad breaks. It was tougher today. It was higher-speed winds, for sure, tougher pin locations, tee boxes moved back. But I never gave up; neither did the boys, which I\u2019m proud of. We all fought until the end, which is something to be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
USD\u2019s lineup \u2014 Maspat, junior You Seong Choi, sophomore Cooper Humphreys and freshmen Piron and Reed Arnaldo (La Costa Canyon High) \u2014 reflected both the program\u2019s present and its future.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to get knocked down to learn the biggest lessons, right?\u201d Emerick said. \u201cLast year, we did that, and we made it further. We\u2019re just going to keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the top of the leaderboard, Auburn earned the No. 1 seed for match play at 26 under after entering Monday with a three-shot lead over Texas. The Tigers were followed into the quarterfinals by the Longhorns, Florida, defending national champion Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Stanford and UCLA. The Cardinal and Bruins advanced in a four-for-two playoff with North Carolina and Tennessee.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma State\u2019s Preston Stout won the individual national title at 14-under 274, becoming the Cowboys\u2019 10th NCAA individual champion and their first since Matthew Wolff in 2019. Stout birdied the 72nd hole to edge Alabama sophomore William Jennings by one shot after Jennings missed a par putt on his final hole that would have forced a playoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special,\u201d Stout told Golf Channel. \u201cI wish I wouldn\u2019t have made it so stressful coming down the 18, but that\u2019s why we practice. That\u2019s why we go to Oklahoma State, for moments like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARLSBAD \u2014 The University of San Diego arrived at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,32496,181,74,76,75,127,3425],"class_list":["post-342385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-college-sports","tag-golf","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-toreros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}