Huskers Finish Sixth at Big 12 Championships

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<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Tulsa, Okla. ? The Nebraska men’s golf team posted two top-20 individual finishes and three top-25 finishes en route to a sixth-place finish at the 10th Annual Big 12 Championships at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

The Huskers finished with a total team score of 887 (291-296-300) to match their second best finish since joining the Big 12 League in 1997, while also helping Head Coach Bill Spangler’s best finish in his six-year tenure at Nebraska.

 

Junior Brady Schnell led the team and the tournament through the first round with a score of 68, and finished with a final score of 220 (68-77-75) to snag a tie for 19th. Schnell also posted 11 birdies, second in the tournament, and placed in the top-10 in par-four scoring at just four-over par.

 

Senior Judd Cornell matched Schnell’s score of 220 (72-69-79) to tie for the top spot in the Husker lineup and a tie for 19th overall, while also shooting 35 pars and placing in the top-10 in the tournament in par-four scoring at just four-over par for the tournament.

 

Junior Ty Capps came back with a dynamite final two rounds to finish with a total score of 222 (79-72-71) and fill the 24th spot in the tournament. Capps also had 34 pars and six birdies while placing in the top-20 in par-three scoring at just two-over par and par-four scoring at eight-over par.

 

Junior Drew Reynolds finished with a final score of 227 (74-78-75) to finish in 39th in the tournament while also finishing in the top-20 in the tournament in par-five scoring at one-under par.

 

Freshman Trent Price rounded out the Husker lineup with a final score of 239 (77-28-84) and the 59th spot in the tournament.

 

Oklahoma won its first Big 12 Championship with a final score of 858 (285-289-284). The Sooners last won the conference in title in 1992 as a member of the Big Eight. Prior to the 1992 win, OU's last league title came in 1957 as a member of the Big Seven.

 

Texas filled the second-place spot with a score of 862 (285-287-290). Texas A&M took third with 866 (289-287-290), while Texas Tech (289-292-295) and Oklahoma State (299-288-289) each posted scores of 876 to tie for fourth and round out the top five in the tournament.

 

Texas’ Matthew Rosenfeld won the individual title with a 210 (71-70-69), as the third Longhorn to claim Big 12 medalist honors (joining David Gossett in 1999 and Jason Hartwick in 2004).

 

The par-70, 7,055-yard Southern Hills Country Club course, home to the U.S. Open in 2001, played host to the Big 12 Championships for the second time in conference history.

 

The average score in the 2006 Big 12 Championship was 74.27, with 74.13 marking the average for the first and third rounds and 74.57 for the second. There were just 11 scores in the 60s posted by 11 different players while par was matched 13 times. 

 

The 52 strokes that separated first through 12th were the fewest in tournament history, besting the old mark of 54 in 2003, and thus making the two Southern Hills meets the two closest from top to bottom in league annals.

 

In addition, the top six spots were represented by players from six schools, a Big 12 Championship first, as the old record was just four.

 

The 11th Annual Big 12 Championships in 2007 will be a return to Prairie Dunes Golf Club (Hutchinson, Kan.), with the dates set for April 23-24.  The 2008 championship will take place at Whispering Pines Golf Club (Trinity, Texas), site of the 2005 affair. 

 

That year the conference will experiment with a new format, one that will expand the tournament to 72 holes with a 36-18-18 format over three days; the dates for 2008 have not been finalized.