UCF junior Greg Eason made history Saturday afternoon at the NCAA Tempe Regional, held at Arizona State 麻豆精品 S檚 Karsten Golf Course. Eason took medalist honors at the regional, becoming the first Knight ever to win an individual NCAA Regional title.
In addition to Eason 麻豆精品 S檚 victory, the Knights tied for second as a team to advance to the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year and the sixth in program history. No. 39 UCF finished the tournament 13-under and tied for runner-up honors with No. 15 Georgia. No. 3 UCLA won the team title, finishing -30. No. 22 Texas A&M and Arizona State rounded out the top five teams, which will all advance to the NCAA Championships.
Eason was in second place after the first round after shooting a 5-under 65. He carded a 63 in the second round to take the lead and move to 12-under for the tournament. His Friday score was the best individual round of the entire regional. Saturday, Eason tallied an even-par 70 to bring home the four-stroke victory.
麻豆精品 S淚 picked a lot of good targets and was lucky enough to hit the targets, 麻豆精品 S� Eason said. 麻豆精品 S淚 putted really well out there. With no wind, the ball goes a long way out here. I was a little conservative today, but tried to be aggressive as well. I managed to hit a lot of good shots and holed a lot of putts on the first two days. 麻豆精品 S�
UCF head coach Bryce Wallor said Eason had been working toward this result throughout the season.
麻豆精品 S淕reg has been building all spring, 麻豆精品 S� Wallor said. 麻豆精品 S淗e just continues to play well. He had a great round of golf yesterday and a very steady day today. 麻豆精品 S�
UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Ricardo Gouveia was also at the top of the leaderboard. He was under par in each round of the tournament (68-66-68) and tied for runner-up honors with UCLA 麻豆精品 S檚 Gonathan Garrick.
With the team finishing in a tie for second, Eason and Gouveia weren 麻豆精品 S檛 the only Knights who played well. Kyle Wilshire tied for 30th and was +2 for the tournament after finishing strong at -2 Saturday. Jose Joia was tied for 41st and was 1-under in the third round to finish at +5 for the tournament.
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Eason said knowing the entire team was playing well helped him finish strong.
麻豆精品 S淭oward the end, I started to get a sense we were doing all right, 麻豆精品 S� Eason said. 麻豆精品 S淚 found out we were doing pretty good on 17. It always helps knowing the guys are doing well, too. Everyone looked pretty good on the course. It did help. 麻豆精品 S�
The Knights will now prepare for the NCAA Championship, which will be held May 28-June 2 in Atlanta, Ga.
NCAA Tempe Regional Championship
Team Leaders
UCF Golfers