For the second consecutive year, the Virginia men’s golf team has advanced to match play at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.
The Cavaliers finished the 72 holes of stroke play at the Omni La Costa Resort North Course tied with North Carolina for third place at 11-over 1,163. UVa shot 7-over 295 during Monday’s final round.
The Cavaliers won the tie-breaker with North Carolina for the third seed for match play based on the cumulative dropped score during the four-round tournament.
“It was solid all the way through,” Virginia head coach Bowen Sargent said of his team’s performance. “We dropped a little here on 18, which is slightly disappointing, as we made a couple of bogeys there. We’ve played 20 solid rounds over the course of the week and competed well. I like what I’ve seen.”
The Cavaliers will face sixth-place finisher Auburn in the quarterfinals of match play on Tuesday. That match will start at 7:40 a.m. Pacific (10:40 a.m. Eastern) from the 10th tee. Auburn finished with a team score of 19-over 1,171. The Tigers entered the NCAA Championships as the nation’s top-ranked team. The winner of that match will meet the winner of the match between Vanderbilt and Ohio State during Tuesday afternoon’s semifinals.
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“This is the second year in a row for us to make it to match play,” Sargent said. “It’s hard because there are so many good teams and so many good coaches and everyone is working hard. You do take a lot of pride in making it to the final eight.”
Illinois finished first in stroke play at 6-under 1,146, including a final round of 4-under 284. Also advancing to match play was second-place Vanderbilt (1,162), fourth-place North Carolina (1,163), fifth-place Florida State (1,164), eighth-place Ohio State (1,174) and eighth-place Georgia Tech (1,177).
Ben James led the Cavaliers with a runner-up finish for medalist honors at 2-under 286. James shot 1-over 73 during the final round and tied with five other players for second place, one shot behind Georgia Tech’s Hiroshi Tai. Tai led the tournament after the opening round with a 5-under 67. He shot 1-under 71 during the final round.
James’ finish was the second best by a Cavalier at the event and the best turned in during stroke play. Dixon Brooke won the NCAA individual title for UVA in 1940 when a match play format was used to determine the national champion. James was sixth at the 2023 NCAA Championships as a freshman.
“I started off really good, 2-under through eight,” James said. “My chipping kept me in it as I hit some not great iron shots, but my short game was good. A couple of the holes I put it in some tricky spots, but I felt like I hit only one or two bad putts on the day. I didn’t hit it in play as much as I would like, but outside of that everything was pretty good.”
Quarterfinal match play lineups (starting on Hole 10)
Josh Duangmanee (UVa) vs. Carson Bacha (Auburn) – 7:40 a.m. Pacific
George Duangmanee (UVa) vs. Brendan Valdes (Auburn) – 7:50 a.m. Pacific
Bryan Lee (UVa) vs. Josiah Gilbert (Auburn) – 8 a.m. Pacific
Deven Patel (UVa) vs. Jackson Koivun (Auburn) – 8:10 a.m. Pacific
Ben James (UVa) vs. J.M. Butler (Auburn) – 8:20 a.m. Pacific
