Auburn men’s golf got off to a solid start at the NCAA Championship on Friday, tied for fifth after the first day of the event at 2-under. But head coach Nick Clinard wanted more out of his lineup and expected to see that on Saturday.
He quickly saw that.
In the fifth spot in the lineup and getting his first experience at the Omni La Costa and at the NCAA Championship, Cayden Pope didn’t get off to the start he wanted shooting a 77 (+5) on Friday. He flipped the script on Saturday, bouncing back from a bogey on hole No. 4 and firing off birdies on four of his next six holes. He bogeyed No. 16, but bounced back on No. 18 with a birdie and ended the day shooting a 69 (-3).
“It was very impressive,” Clinard told Auburn Undercover. “I’m just very proud of him. He’s a great ball-striker, probably one of our best ball-strikers on the team. Once he starts making some putts, watch out because he’s a really special kid and he works really hard. I’m just glad to see him play really well because I know how much it means to him.”
With a lot of teams still out on the course for Saturday’s round after Auburn was in the first tee time of the day, the Tigers are firmly cemented near the top of the leaderboard. Arizona State is in the lead at 13-under after a huge 11-under round on Saturday, with Oklahoma in second place at 10-under. Auburn is 8-under and in third place, with Florida the next closest team at 5-under. Florida State, Cal and Texas are all also in contention under or around par.
“Obviously the early tee time is nice,” Clinard said. “We didn’t have a lot of wind for the first nine holes and we got out there and played some really good golf early. We’ve got to play the par fives a little bit better, that’s for sure. But overall, I was really pleased. I thought the guys really competed and played hard. The wind picked up on the back nine and it played tough, but they hung in there, hit a lot of good shots and had a good team score today.”
Once again it was a strong day for the leaders of the lineup, with Brendan Valdes and Jackson Koivun both shooting 2-under for the day. For the second-straight day, Koivun opened his round up with a birdie-birdie start. He had a bogey on hole No. 14, but got that stroke back on No. 17 to finish at 70 for the day. Valdes fired off birdies on No. 1, No. 11 and No. 18 to put him at 5-under for the tournament and currently tied for fourth on the individual leaderboard.
Senior Carson Bacha shot a 73 (+1) and is 4-over par for the tournament while sophomore Josiah Gilbert shot a 75 (+3) and is 2-over for the tournament after the first two days.
There’s one more day of stroke play for the event this weekend before the 30-team field is trimmed to 15 going into Memorial Day, where the 15 teams will play one final day of stroke play to advance to the match play portion of the event for the final eight teams. The quarterfinals and semifinals of match play will take place next Tuesday, with the championship set for next Wednesday.
“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing, keep playing well,” Clinard said. “I’m just kind of waiting for us to break out and put it all together as a team. We’ve kind of ham and egg’d it a little bit so far. Just waiting for Jackson to get hot and do what he does, get four- or five-under. Waiting for Carson to get out of the little funk he’s in and play some good golf. It’s really the same mentality, same mindset. Go out there and make birdies and take what the golf course gives us. Play smart, but play aggressive, too.
“We should be early again tomorrow, they’re still playing right now but we should be in that 6:30 pacific time tee time,” Clinard said.
The NCAA Championship will not be televised until Monday at 5 p.m. CT on the Golf Channel. Tuesday’s portion of the event will be televised starting at 11:30 a.m. CT and Wednesday’s championship will also air starting at 5 p.m. CT. Live stats for stroke play can be found HERE. Auburn Undercover is also keeping live updates and discussion in a thread for VIP subscribers HERE.