Auburn golf to tee off against Virginia in Quarterfinal Round

USA Today

6 days ago

Auburn golf to tee off against Virginia in Quarterfinal Round
The Auburn Tigers quest for a back-to-back National Championship continues against a familiar foe on Tuesday. After finishing the group play stage of the NCAA Championship at second place on the leaderboard, the No. 1 ranked Tigers will face off against No. 10 ranked Virginia in the Quarterfinal Match Play round.
Auburn's performance through the first 72 holes of the NCAA Championships was strong, albeit slightly inconsistent, leading to the No. 2 seed in the Match Play stage. While the Jackson Koivun, Branden Valdes, and company never fell further than a tie for fifth place on the leaderboard, the Tigers did cough up a first place finish on the final day.
The Tigers finished with a respectable 2 shots under par score in Monday's fourth and final round of group play, pushing their four-day total to 12-under par. Arizona State, who leapfrogged the Tigers for the No. 1 spot, finished at 14 shots under par after a spectacular 8-under final round.
Tuesday's opponent Virginia also shot better than Auburn on Monday, finishing 4 strokes under par to usurp a pair of teams for one of the final two spots in the quarterfinal. After coming out of the gates with an 11-over par first round, the Cavaliers managed to shoot 2-under par over the final three days.
The Quarterfinal Round will get underway at 8:50 AM CST, with Auburn's Cayden Pope teeing off against Virginia's Maxi Puregger in a battle of freshman golfers. Each set of competitors tee off in 10 minute intervals thereafter, with the final pairing of Josiah Gilbert against Bryan Lee getting started at 9:30 CST.
Auburn defeated Virginia 3-1 in last season's Quarterfinal en route to a National Championship.
Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Brian on Twitter@TheRealBHauch