After a day marred by high winds and difficult playing conditions, Texas Tech men’s golf sits in eighth place at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional.
The Red Raiders struggled in round two on the UNM Championship Course, going 28-over, but sit just four shots out of fifth place, which is the cutoff to advance to the NCAA Championships. Only three schools managed to avoid going 20-over on Tuesday, which featured high-gusting winds and a difficult course setup.
“Obviously a very tough day out there,” Texas Tech head coach Greg Sands said. “The weather and course setup were tough. I thought we didn’t execute with confidence today and it showed. Some guys let the conditions beat them up. We will battle back tomorrow and I have confidence we will execute better. Hopefully we can get a few guys to make some putts and post a good score. It should be a fun day.”
Heading into the final round, the second-place team (TCU) and the eighth-place team (Tech) are separated by just 10 shots, setting up for a wild final day.
The day began with Wes Artac carding a birdie on the first hole, but the Red Raiders did not register another birdie on the front nine until Artac birdied the ninth. In between those holes, Tech posted bogey or double bogey 21 times. However, the Red Raiders were still in third place as they made the turn.
Tech did scatter six birdies on the back nine, but also posted five scores of double bogey or worse. The Red Raiders went 12-over as a team on holes 13-17, allowing a couple teams to slip by them late in the round. However, Artac and Hurly Long birdied the 18th hole to end the day on a high note and pull Tech within four shots of the cutline.
Individually, Hannes Ronneblad leads the way at +4 overall and is tied for fifth place after shooting a 75 today.
The Red Raiders will begin tomorrow’s final round at 8:30 a.m. CT, led off by Ivan Ramirez and followed by Federico Zucchetti, Long, Artac and Ronneblad. Tech will be paired with New Mexico and Liberty.
Golfstat will provide live scoring for Sunday’s final round here.
(Press Release Provided by Texas Tech Athletics)
