NCAA Championship: Stanford leads way into match play

HUTCHISON, Kan. (May 26, 2014) -- A Stanford golfer came to the rescue Monday but it wasn't Patrick Rodgers.

David Boote fired a spectacular 65 to help the Cardinal hold off a surge from LSU and Alabama to take the top spot during stroke- play and earn the top seed in match play at the 2014 NCAA Men's Golf Championship at Prairie Dunes.

Rodgers shot 67-68 over the first two rounds and seemed poised to win his seventh event of the season. But a final- round 73 pushed him to a tie for 16th in the individual competition and prevented him from breaking Tiger Woods' career record for wins at Stanford.

Instead, it was Boote (73-67-65, T3) and Cameron Wilson (71-63- 70, T1) who led Stanford to a nine-shot victory over 'Bama and LSU, which tied for second place.

Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, UCLA, SMU and Illinois are the other teams moving on in the team competition. According to Golfweek's Lance Ringler, who's on site, the matches will be:

(1) Stanford vs. (8) Illinois
(2) Alabama vs. (7) SMU
(3) LSU vs. (6) UCLA
(4) Oklahoma State vs. (5) Georgia Tech

South Carolina narrowly missed forcing a playoff for the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds but couldn't convert late in the day. The Gamecocks finished a shot back of Illinois and SMU.

Houston was three shots out of the tie for seventh place, rounding out the Top 10.

In the individual race, Stanford's Cameron Wilson and Ollie Schniederjans of Georgia Tech -- two of the season's top stars -- tied for medalist honors at 6-under, forcing a playoff to determine the individual NCAA Champion.

On the third playoff hole -- the 17th at Prairie Dunes -- Wlson sank a birdie putt for the title.

Boote, James Ross (Houston) and Alabama's Robby Shelton were tied for third at 5-under.