SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Derek Hitchner wasn’t present for Pepperdine’s NCAA Championship victory two years ago at Grayhawk, but he recalls watching the final round of stroke play that year when the Waves fired a 7-under 273, a championship record on the desert layout until Illinois fired a 271 to break it on Saturday.
“I can remember watching that and seeing a barrage of birdies,” Hitchner said. “I feel like you can see rounds like that depending on how the conditions are.”
Hitchner, a fifth-year senior and importance piece to this year’s Pepperdine squad, saw inviting conditions on Sunday – more receptive greens, pushed-up tee boxes, easier hole locations and a morning tee time – and he and his teammates took advantage.
Illinois’ new record lasted less than 24 hours.
Team scoring for NCAA DI Men’s Golf Championships
Pepperdine became the first school to break 270 in an NCAA Championship at Grayhawk by putting together an 11-under 269 in the third round. Hitchner led the way for the Waves, posting a 5-under 65 and bouncing back from back-to-back 73s.
While Hitchner was 6 over through two rounds, he had played Nos. 1 and 8 in a combined 9 over, which included him making a quadruple bogey on Friday at the par-4 first hole, where he had to take an unplayable after an errant drive into the desert before hitting a tree branch with his next shot, leading to another unplayable.
“I chalked it off as a regrettable mistake but one that I felt like I could bounce back from,” Hitchner said, “and I felt confident enough that I could make enough birdies to recover.”
And he’s done just that. Hitchner has carded 17 birdies through 54 holes of this NCAA Championship, just one shy of the championship leader, North Carolina senior and Hitchner’s former teammate Dylan Menante, who has 18. He is 1 over for the week, just behind teammates Sam Choi (1 under) and Luke Gifford (2 under).
Pepperdine head coach Michael Beard, who also led the Waves to the national semifinals last year before falling to Arizona State, has a ton of great memories on this golf course, as does senior William Mouw, who also won the AJGA event at Grayhawk, the Thunderbird Invitational, in high school. But with so much talent either graduating or transferring (Menante), Beard had to dive into the portal to shore up his roster this season. With three transfers – Choi, Gifford and Roberto Nieves – and an incoming freshman in Brady Siravo, Beard understandably didn’t know what to expect from this squad at the start of the fall.
Now, after a season that saw Pepperdine post nine top-3 finishes and earn a No. 1 regional seed, Beard is fully confident in this group.
“We have such a great group,” Beard said, “and it’s so much fun to be with them each and every day, and that blends into how we practice, team dinners, stuff like that. Before the season, we didn’t know how the transfers were gonna – it just takes a while to get to know each other. This spring, it feels like we’ve had them for two or three years.”
Added Hitchner of the transfers: “We’ve seen what they’re capable of. It’s just been a matter of getting across the line and just performing like this in a tournament setting. But this isn’t surprising at all that they’re rising to the occasion.”
Choi, an All-American at New Mexico, has continued his past success with four top-10s and the third-best scoring average on the team while leading Pepperdine with a T-7 showing at regionals. Gifford has been a consistent No. 4 guy with no top-10s, but he’s posted five top-20s before catching fire this week as he’s further removed himself, with the help of assistant Chris Zambri, from his tendency to rely on roping hooks from tee to green.
The final piece this week is Nieves. Beard admits that the fifth spot had been a toss-up all year with Nieves, Siravo and sophomore Ian Maspat all playing seven to eight events this season. Nieves, though, didn’t make the trip for the West Coast Conference Championship or the NCAA Morgan Hill Regional after shooting 77-63-77 at Pasatiempo.
But Nieves showed some signs back home in the past week, and after discussing with Zambri who would start at Grayhawk, Beard’s gut told him that he should go with Nieves, whose 2-under 68 paced the Waves in Friday’s opening round.
“He’s shown a lot of resilience,” Hitchner said of Nieves. “Coach and I have talked about making sure that he knows that he’d probably be called upon down the stretch. He’s a guy who brings a lot of value to the lineup, so just making sure that he knows that he belongs in this position.”
After a record-setting day that sees Pepperdine in solo second at 3 under, three back of Illinois and more importantly 10 clear of T-8, it’s clear that the Waves still belong here at Grayhawk, too.
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish