Illinois posts second consecutive under-par total in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona to solidly make sure they’ll be in the match play field.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 28, 2023

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

Different pre-round mentality, similar post-round result for the players of the Illinois men’s golf program.

The Illini ended their third round of the 2023 NCAA Championships Sunday afternoon in the lead of the team standings following its run up the leaderboard on the previous day.

Illinois, which began the day with a three-shot lead, maintained its leading margin despite a furious moving-day charge by Pepperdine, which barely advanced out of its regional last week. The Illini carded three rounds of even-par or better to post a 4-under-par 276 to get to 6-under-par over the first three days of the tournament.

3rd ranked Illinois has ridden back to back early starts to a 3rd round lead at the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

“Coming off a good day, sometimes you can lack that a little bit, and our guys didn’t do that,” Illinois head coach Mike Small said. “They came out and played their game. They stayed steadfast and played solid golf. The emotions were different heading into the round, but the result was still the same - very solid golf. I was very proud of the way they played.”

Illinois was led by senior Tommy Kuhl’s second-consecutive round under par as the Morton native birdied two of the final three holes and his head coach believed he had a great chance to make it three in a row by having a convertible birdie putt on the difficult 520-yard, par-4 final hole.

“He should’ve birdied 18 too and that’s maybe the most difficult hole out here but yeah, Tommy is just really good,” Small said. “We know he has the ability to do what he did today because tee to green he’s just that talented and can execute at a high level.”

For the second consecutive day Illinois, which is ranked No. 3 in the nation and was awarded for being among the top three programs on the leaderboard through two rounds, was among a host of under-par team scores in the morning tee time wave at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. This dynamic will flip for the final round Monday as the Illini will have to deal with warmer afternoon temperatures, less moisture in the greens and a much harder golf course literally and figuratively.

Illinois has three players (Kuhl, Jackson Buchanan and Adrien Dumont de Chassart) in the top 10 of the individual medalist standings. The is 19 strokes in front of the top eight cutline for the match play format slated to start Tuesday. The eighth and final transfer spot is currently a tie involving the No. 1 ranked program in the nation as Vanderbilt is knotted up with No. 7 Florida State at 13-over-par 853.

“As a coach, the guys have to go out and execute the shots but our job is to create the culture for them to be able to do that,” Small said. “The goal tomorrow is the same - go out and play solidly.”

Buchanan, the 21-year-old sophomore competing in his first NCAA finals, fired four birdies in his seven holes to allow the Dacula, Georgia native to finish with a second straight 2-under 68 to get him to 3-under-par after 54 holes of the event.

“The thing about Jackson is he’s able to combine athleticism and competitiveness at a high level,” Small said. “Here’s the thing - kids get better at this point in their life. At 18 to 22 years old is when you really start getting good at things in your life and he’s a really good talented golfer.”

Illinois fifth-year senior Adrien Dumont de Chassart is currently tied for third individually, which would be his best NCAA Championships finish, after an even-par 70 to put him at 4-under-par 206. The Illini also got an encouraging 18-hole performance from left-hander Piercen Hunt as the Wisconsin native managed to make 15 pars less than two days before his match play point will be highly counted on for this Illini team.

“For him to be able to string a lot of pars together is a positive thing that we like to see,” Small said. “What he’s been going through is something we all deal with but hey, tomorrow is a new day and we’re going to need him and he knows that.”

Everyone involved in the Pepperdine men’s golf program is likely going to be disappointed to leave Grayhawk after this year because the Waves now own the two lowest single-round team scores. Pepperdine posted a 9-under-par 271 team score on the final day of stroke play last season to lift them into the match play format. After this season’s championship event, the course that will crown the NCAA title holder will be at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

On Sunday, Pepperdine was led by Minnesota native Derek Hitchner (5-under 65), South Florida transfer Luke Gifford (3-under 67) and New Mexico transfer Sam Choi (3-under 67) to fire a remarkable 11-under-par 269 to close the gap Illinois had built on Saturday. Unlike Saturday when Illinois and Florida were the only programs in under-par red figures with their team score, six different programs finished the day under par.

Georgia Tech senior Ross Steelman has taken a chokehold on the individual medalist race as he’ll attempt a wire-to-wire victory when he tees off Monday afternoon. Steelman posted a 2-under 68 Sunday to take a four-stroke lead over North Carolina senior Dylan Menante into the final day of competition in the medal round. Menante has NCAA Championship experience but in different colors as he was the top player at Pepperdine last year and holds a 2-2-1 record in the match play portion of the NCAAs in his last two seasons with the Waves program.

The first of four days of stroke play determine which programs will move on to the match play format of the championship. Following today’s play, the 30-team field was cut in half as the top 15 teams will advance to the final day of competition. After four days of stroke play, the top eight teams will be bracketed on Monday night and three rounds of best-of-five, head-to-head match play will begin Tuesday to determine the 2023 national champion.

The defending national champion was sent home early as Texas finished in 19th place and was six shots outside the top 15 cutline for the final transfer spot. The 15th and final spot for tomorrow’s final day of stroke play will be contested in a sudden-death playoff. Ohio State and Texas Tech will be in a playoff for the final transfer spot and that five-hole aggregate playoff will be Monday morning at 10 a.m. CST between holes No. 14-18. The winner of that playoff will have less than an hour to rest before being slated to tee off for its final round of stroke play.

One of the biggest movers of the day was Stanford. The program that has produced Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and PGA Tour player Maverick McNealy but has only made it the match play quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championships twice since 2014 was able to move up seven spots on Sunday to sixth on the leaderboard with a 6-under-par 274 led by senior Barclay Brown’s 3-under 67. As an amateur, Brown made the 36-hole cut at The 2022 Open Championship last summer at St. Andrews Old Course.

The Golf Channel will televise the final round of stroke play on Monday starting at 4 p.m. CST. Golf Channel will broadcast the quarterfinal and semifinal team matches on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. respectively and then will broadcast the national championship team match on Wednesday evening starting at 4 p.m.

NCAA Championships

Team Scores

Illinois -6

Pepperdine -3

Florida -1

North Carolina +1

Georgia Tech +2

Stanford +10

Arizona State +11

Vanderbilt +13

Florida State +13

Virginia +14

Auburn +16

Texas A&M +17

Alabama +21

Georgia +24

Ohio State +26*

Texas Tech +26*

-------------------------------

Oklahoma +27

Arkansas +30

Texas +32

San Francisco +33

Colorado +34

Duke +38

Chattanooga +39

BYU +39**

New Mexico +40

Mississippi State +40

Colorado State +41

Oregon +42

East Tennessee State +48

Baylor +49

*NOTE: Ohio State and Texas Tech will be in a playoff for the final transfer spot but that five-hole aggregate playoff will be Monday morning at 10 a.m. CST between holes No. 14-18.

**NOTE: BYU was restricted from playing on Sunday so they were permitted to play and record its third round score on Thursday afternoon/evening with a 23-over-par 303 total. Therefore, the Cougars finished with a three-day total of  39-over-par 879.

Illini Individual Scores

T4 Adrien Dumont de Chassart: 68-68-70--206 (-4)

7 Jackson Buchanan: 71-68-68--207 (-3)

T8 Tommy Kuhl: 72-69-67--208 (-2)

T44 Matthis Besard: 76-68-71--215 (+5)

T108 Piercen Hunt: 74-75-73--222 (+12)

Different pre-round mentality, similar post-round result for the players of the Illinois men’s golf program.

The Illini ended their third round of the 2023 NCAA Championships Sunday afternoon in the lead of the team standings following its run up the leaderboard on the previous day.

Illinois, which began the day with a three-shot lead, maintained its leading margin despite a furious moving-day charge by Pepperdine, which barely advanced out of its regional last week. The Illini carded three rounds of even-par or better to post a 4-under-par 276 to get to 7-under-par over the first three days of the tournament.

“Coming off a good day, sometimes you can lack that a little bit, and our guys didn’t do that,” Illinois head coach Mike Small said. “They came out and played their game. They stayed steadfast and played solid golf. The emotions were different heading into the round, but the result was still the same - very solid golf. I was very proud of the way they played.”

Illinois was led by senior Tommy Kuhl’s second-consecutive round under par as the Morton native birdied two of the final three holes and his head coach believed he had a great chance to make it three in a row by having a convertible birdie putt on the difficult 520-yard, par-4 final hole.

“He should’ve birdied 18 too and that’s maybe the most difficult hole out here but yeah, Tommy is just really good,” Small said. “We know he has the ability to do what he did today because tee to green he’s just that talented and can execute at a high level.”

For the second consecutive day Illinois, which is ranked No. 3 in the nation and was awarded for being among the top three programs on the leaderboard through two rounds, was among a host of under-par team scores in the morning tee time wave at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. This dynamic will flip for the final round Monday as the Illini will have to deal with warmer afternoon temperatures, less moisture in the greens and a much harder golf course literally and figuratively.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, Illinois had three players (Kuhl, Jackson Buchanan and Adrien Dumont de Chassart) in the top 10 of the individual medalist standings. At that same time, Illinois is nearly 20 strokes in front of the top eight cutline for the match play format slated to start Tuesday.

“As a coach, the guys have to go out and execute the shots but our job is to create the culture for them to be able to do that,” Small said. “The goal tomorrow is the same - go out and play solidly.”

Buchanan, the 21-year-old sophomore competing in his first NCAA finals, fired four birdies in his seven holes to allow the Dacula, Georgia native to finish with a second straight 2-under 68 to get him to 3-under-par after 54 holes of the event.

“The thing about Jackson is he’s able to combine athleticism and competitiveness at a high level,” Small said. “Here’s the thing - kids get better at this point in their life. At 18 to 22 years old is when you really start getting good at things in your life and he’s a really good talented golfer.”

Illinois fifth-year senior Adrien Dumont de Chassart is currently tied for third individually, which would be his best NCAA Championships finish, after an even-par 70 to put him at 4-under-par 206. The Illini also got an encouraging 18-hole performance from left-hander Piercen Hunt as the Wisconsin native managed to make 15 pars less than two days before his match play point will be highly counted on for this Illini team.

“For him to be able to string a lot of pars together is a positive thing that we like to see,” Small said. “What he’s been going through is something we all deal with but hey, tomorrow is a new day and we’re going to need him and he knows that.”

Everyone involved in the Pepperdine men’s golf program is likely going to be disappointed to leave Grayhawk after this year because the Waves now own the two lowest single-round team scores. Pepperdine was led by Minnesota native Derek Hitchner (5-under 65), South Florida transfer Luke Gifford (3-under 67) and New Mexico transfer Sam Choi (3-under 67) to fire a remarkable 11-under-par 269 to close the gap Illinois had built on Saturday. Unlike Saturday when Illinoisn and Florida were the only programs in under-par red figures with their team score, six different programs finished the day under par.

Georgia Tech senior Ross Steelman has taken a chokehold on the individual medalist race as he’ll attempt a wire-to-wire victory when he tees off Monday afternoon. Steelman posted a 2-under 68 Sunday to take a four-stroke lead over North Carolina senior Dylan Menante into the final day of competition in the medal round. Menante has NCAA Championship experience but in different colors as he was the top player at Pepperdine last year and holds a 2-2-1 record in the match play portion of the NCAAs in his last two seasons with the Waves program.

The first of four days of stroke play determine which programs will move on to the match play format of the championship. Following today’s play, the 30-team field will be cut in half as the top 15 teams will advance to the final day of competition. After four days of stroke play, the top eight teams will be bracketed on Monday night and three rounds of best-of-five, head-to-head match play will begin Tuesday to determine the 2023 national champion.

The Golf Channel will televise the final round of stroke play on Monday starting at 4 p.m. CST. Golf Channel will broadcast the quarterfinal and semifinal team matches on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. respectively and then will broadcast the national championship team match on Wednesday evening starting at 4 p.m.