Creel Claims National Title, Bronchos Advance

5/17/2012 6:33:00 PM

Josh Creel

SIMPSONVILLE, Kay. (May 16) – Josh Creel accomplished Central Oklahoma's first goal at the NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships here Thursday and now the Bronchos will gun for the second.

Creel used a late birdie surge to force a playoff and then captured the individual national title with a par on the first hole, while UCO ended up third in the 54-hole stroke play portion of the tournament to advance to the eight-team match play format that will determine the team champion.

Creel rallied from two shots down with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to finish off a one-under-par 71 and pull even with Jim Knous of Colorado School of Mines, with both ending up at 10-under 206.

The two went to the par-5 18^th hole to start the playoff and it ended early as Creel two-putted for a routine par to beat Knous' three-putt bogey and become UCO's first national champion since Dax Johnston in 1996.

“It's good to join Dax as a fellow national champion at UCO,” said Creel, who was coached by Johnston last year before Pat Bates took over the helm last August. “It was a grind all day, but I hit the shots I needed to down the stretch. It's a great feeling and I'm looking forward to competing for the team title the next couple of days.”

The Bronchos closed with a 287 to finish third in the 54-hole stroke play portion of the tournament with an 856 total. The top eight teams in the 20-team field advance to match play, with UCO set to play Barry in Friday morning's quarterfinals.

Semifinal matches will be held Friday afternoon, with the championship bout scheduled for Saturday.

Cal State-Chico earned the No. 1 seed for match play by finishing three trips around The Cardinal Club with a 851 total. Also advancing were Nova Southeastern (855), UCO, Cal State-Stanislaus (858), Georgia College (862), Barry (866), South Carolina-Aiken (870) and Central Missouri (873).

Creel started the day with the individual lead, but had back-to-back bogeys early in his round to drop back. He got both those strokes back on the par-4 sixth hole, hitting his drive to 18 feet on the 274-yard and draining the eagle putt and followed with three straight pars to finish with a front nine 36.

The Cheyenne, Wyo. native opened the back nine with four consecutive pars before bogeying the par-4 14^th and stayed at one-over until birdieing the par-3 16^th. He followed with a two-putt birdie on No. 17 – making him five-under on that par-5 hole for the tourney – to pull even with Knous and got up-and-down for par on the final hole to force the playoff.

Creel was named the Arnold Palmer Division II Player of the Year during the awards ceremony following the playoff.

Rust started his day with eight consecutive pars and then birdied the par-5 ninth hole to make the turn at one-under 35. The Edmond junior dropped back to even par with a bogey on No. 10 and then bogeyed No. 15 before ripping off two straight birdies to finish under par for the day.

Green bounced back from a career-worse 84 in Wednesday's second round with his even-par round. The Edmond senior was two-over after seven holes before closing with a birdie to make the turn at 37 and he parred the first eight holes on the back nine before capping the day with a birdie on the par-4 18^th.

Aneshansley got off to a steady start with seven straight pars before bogeying the par-3 eighth hole in making the turn at one-over 37. The Clinton senior bogeyed two of his first three holes on the back nine to drop to three-over, but got both those strokes back with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to come in with a 36.

Franco used a ninth-hole birdie to finish with a 37 on the front nine, but then double bogeyed No. 10. He sandwiched a 14^th hole bogey with birdies to stay at two-over for the round before parring the last three holes.

Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Related Stories