Oregon wins on home turf for first NCAA Championship title

June 1, 2016 | by Golfweek

Oregon celebrates winning the 2016 NCAA Championship (Tracy Wilcox)

Eugene native Sulman Raza wins the deciding match in extra holes to give Oregon its first NCAA title

by Kevin Casey, Golfweek EUGENE, Ore. (June 1, 2016) – Stop us if this sounds familiar: A Pac-12 team wins the NCAA Championship after going to multiple extra holes in the final match. A week after Washington outlasted Stanford in the women’s final, it was Oregon’s turn to outdo Texas in the men’s tilt. It was both more and less dramatic. The Huskies had the hole-outs galore, an experience that didn’t materialize as much for the Ducks. Oregon, though, had a winning putt, and, you know, the fact that it won as the host school on its home course at Eugene Country Club. “I mean, I’m here (at Eugene Country Club) every day, and so I’m either on the range, the golf course, or in the card room every day,” said Casey Martin, Oregon’s head coach of 10 years. “So to get to have that experience is just – it’s just so special.” The win was the school’s first national title. Come to think of it, Oregon made school history by just reaching the finals, as the Ducks had never done that since the tournament changed to a top-eight match-play format in 2009. But something was different this week. Well, not from the get-go. Oregon, Golfweek‘s No. 22, played closer to its ranking than its host status, only getting out to a tie for 19th in the 30-team after 18 holes. Martin gave his team just a bit of a kick in the rear end, and all was good the rest of the week. The Ducks stormed up to a tie for fourth the next day and stayed comfortable inside the bubble, finishing the stroke play sixth – well within the top eight to make it to match play. Then, after an early deficit to defending national champion LSU in the quarterfinals (Oregon trailed all five matches in the opening holes), the Ducks remained positive and turned it around in a 3-1-1 victory. They then took down juggernaut Illinois, 3-2. It set up a final with top-seeded Texas, Golfweek‘s No. 1 and the winner of the stroke-play portion. The match came down to the wire. It was heading toward a 2-2 tie, when the deciding match, between Sulman Raza and Taylor Funk, would reach a dramatic crescendo. Funk, a Texas sophomore, led 1 up through 16, but Raza made a par putt to knot it up going into 18. On the final hole of regulation, Funk made a 5-footer for par to extend the match. Raza bombed his drive down the first playoff hole (No. 10) and hit a crisp approach within 4 feet. He would have that putt to win the national title. He missed. Somehow, he was not crestfallen. “Casey (Martin) just came up to me and said, all right, good try, don’t be hard on yourself, just get ready for the next hole,” Raza said. Good pep talk. Funk would actually have a 10-footer for birdie on the second extra hole (No. 18) but misread it. ‘”The putt I had earlier to extend the match went a little left, and that one I played right center, and that’s when it broke off a little bit to the right,” Funk said. “When you’re on these greens and you’re just a couple of inches off, the reads can change quite a bit.” Given a new chance on No. 10, what did Raza do? The exact same thing, only with a different ending. Bombed drive, beautiful approach and a short putt for birdie. This time it was six feet. Raza had made a 4-footer for par the previous day to send the Ducks into the finals, and then added another memory when he knocked in this one to end it all. “It’s a putt I’ll never forget. It’s something I’ll always hold onto to remember,” Raza said. “Once I saw the ball go in the hole, I went nuts and kind of blacked out.” It’s understandable. Raza is a hometown kid and this must feel like a dream. In fact, he said it kind of did, citing that the mood felt like, The Greatest Game Ever Played,’ a tale of Francis Ouimet winning the U.S. Open in his hometown of Brookline, Mass. “The Greatest Game Ever Played, that’s what it felt like, just having everybody rushing the fairways, circling the green, it felt like a movie,” Raza said. “It really felt like a movie. It was really a surreal experience. I was like, look at this, this is like the golf movies, and it was just like it, and it ended well,” Martin said Despite the home course advantage, the Ducks didn’t get an easy match play draw, but did catch a break when Beau Hossler, Texas’ star player and Golfweek‘s No. 3, was unable to play in the final and had to concede his match. The Longhorns junior had injured his shoulder the previous day and the pain proved too much for him to play in the final. His forfeit put Oregon up 1-0. But the Ducks still had to win two of four matches against the No. 1 team in the nation – and a school that already boasted four national titles. Edwin Yi, a freshman, downed Gavin Hall, 4 and 3, to start the action. Individual national champion Aaron Wise couldn’t handle a Scottie Scheffler onslaught that included six birdies in a 4-and-3 win. Then Thomas Lim fell to Doug Ghim, 2 and 1. But Raza held out. There’s no question the home-course advantage helped. Ducks fans showed up in droves all week, and they weren’t a quite bunch. “Go Ducks!” chants were present even during the semifinals and several sizable roars emanated from the property during Wednesday’s final. “To see just the pressure and the drama and have it unfold on a place that I call home,” Martin said. “Eugene is a special place, and the University of Oregon has got so much support here, and I knew people would show up if we gave them a reason to.” With a crowd largely new to college golf, though, there was a moment of trepidation. After Funk missed his putt to win, there were at least a few fans that audibly cheered, usually seen as a big no-no in golf. But the losing opponent had nothing but kind words for the large crowds that showed up this week. “I’m excited for college golf,” said John Fields, Texas’ head coach. “I mean, they got there today, it was absolutely awesome. These guys, they love that competition. They love to have people care about them, and that’s what happened this week.” This is no question a special win in college golf. It’s one thing to get a bid accepted and make it to the national championship when you’re hosting. It’s a whole different level to make match play – which, by the way, the Oregon women did last week, too – and then a way higher level to then go win it all. But Martin never would have tried to get his team to host if he didn’t think something special could happen. “I didn’t put a bid in – it costs a lot of money to put these things on, and so I didn’t do that without feeling like we had a legitimate chance,” Martin said. “Looking back, it was something I’d obviously do again because it propelled us to where we are at right now.” Take the trophy home, coach. You won’t have to go far.

Results: NCAA Division I Championship

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Aaron Wise	Lake Elsinore, CA	1500	70-70-64-71=275
2	Rico Hoey	Rancho Cucamonga, CA	1200	70-69-69-69=277
T3	Matthias Schwab	, Austria	900	71-68-67-73=279
T3	Jon Rahm	, Spain	900	71-68-69-71=279
5	Beau Hossler	Mission Viejo, CA	900	70-70-67-73=280

View full results for NCAA Division I Championship

About the NCAA Division I Championship

Oregon wins on home turf for first NCAA Championship title

The NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship is the pinnacle of collegiate golf in the United States, held annually in late May or early June. The event brings together the nation's top 30 teams and six individual qualifiers, all of whom have advanced...