Aaron Wise gave Oregon its first national individual title by two strokes over Rico Hoey of USC on his home course in the NCAA Championships at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Wise, a sophomore from Lake Elsinore in Southern California, overcame two double bogeys on the back nine to shoot 1-over-par 71 including a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, after taking the lead with a 64 in the third round.
“It makes it harder, knowing this is my last event in front of my teammates, my family, my friends,” said Wise, who is turning pro after the NCAA team championship. “My family came up just because it was my last event. All that brings pressure — being on your home course, everything. There was a ton of pressure on me today. I’m happy with the way I was able to calm down before the round and go out there and execute.
“It was one of those putts (on No. 17) I actually struggled to read. I called in (assistant coach Van Williams). He settled me down and said, ‘You’ve got to trust what you do.’ Obviously, I read it right. When that thing went in, I let out some emotion. … The roar from the crowd there was amazing.”
Wise, who claimed his third victory of the season and fourth of his career, finished with a score of 70-70-64-71–275, while Hoey, a junior from Rancho Cucamonga, totaled 70-69-69-69–277, while Mattias Schwab of Vanderbilt posted a score of 71-68-67-73–279 to tie for third with Jon Rahm of Arizona State, who came in at 71-68-69-71–279.
Beau Hossler of Texas, a junior from Mission Viejo, was fifth at 70-70-67-73–280, while Robby Shelton of Alabama shot 70-66-72-73–281 to tie for sixth with Lee McCoy of Georgia, who finished at 69-70-70-72–281.
Charlie Danielson of Illinois wound up at 72-69-70-71–282 to tie for eighth with Antoine Rozner of Missouri-Kansas City, who totaled 70-72-70-70–282, while Collin Morikawa of Cal carded a score of 73-69-70-71–283 to tie for 10th with Justin Suh of USC, who wound up at 68-67-75-73–283, and Thomas Detry of Illinois, who finished at 73-70-73-67–283.
Nahum Mendoza led San Diego State in a tie for 26th at 67-69-74-77–287.
Texas led stroke-play qualifying for the match-play portion of the tournament that will determine the national title, recording a score of 289-281-277-287–1134.
Illinois was second at 290-280-289-276–1135, followed by LSU at 286-282-283-285–1136, while USC totaled 283-282-285-287–1137 to tie for fourth with Vanderbilt, which finished at 283-280-282-292–1137.
Oregon was sixth at 291-277-284-287–1139, followed by South Carolina at 287-285-293-277–1142 and Oklahoma at 290-288-289-277–1144.
In the match-play quarterfinals, Texas meets Oklahoma, Illinois faces South Carolina, LSU plays Oregon and USC takes on Vanderbilt.
Cal, with Coach Steve Desimone retiring after 37 seasons, finished in a tie for 10th at 287-284-287-292–1150.
The biggest disappointment of the tournament was Stanford, one of six regional champions, which was 28th and didn’t even advance to the final round of stroke play, finishing at 292-294-298–884 as All-American Maverick McNealy tied for 122nd at 76-71-76–223.
