CARLSBAD, Calif. – After Virginia completed sixth at its dwelling occasion, the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial, simply forward of its B-team, Cavaliers head coach Bowen Sargent may sense that his gamers had been gassed.
“All of them seemed drained and sluggish,” Sargent mentioned, “so I instructed them simply put your golf equipment up and go dwelling.”
For 3 days, Virginia’s apply facility was off limits to Sargent’s staff. Once they returned to work, the Cavaliers nonetheless had precisely per week to arrange for the ACC Championship.
Although Virginia completed fifth at convention and missed match play by three pictures, it had hit the reset button. A runner-up end on the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional proved it, as has the Cavaliers’ scorching begin by means of 36 holes of the NCAA Championship.
With a 1-under 287 in Saturday’s second spherical at Omni La Costa, Virginia sits atop the 30-team leaderboard at 1 over, three pictures higher than second-place Illinois, six away from third-place Vanderbilt and 16 forward of T-8.
“We’ve pushed the ball nicely and, knock on wooden, haven’t made numerous massive scores,” mentioned Sargent, whose squad has mixed to solely card one rating of double bogey or worse – Ben James’ double at No. 13 on Friday after hitting his tee shot out of bounds.
The Cavaliers have performed the “Crucible,” the brand new nickname for Nos. 12-17, in a mixed 8 over par by means of two rounds. And the par-4 14th gap, the hardest to date this week, has been straightforward for Virginia, which made 5 pars on it on Friday earlier than going 1 over on Saturday.
“That felt like successful the lottery,” Sargent mentioned.
Senior George Duangmanee birdied the outlet to spark a three-birdie run that highlighted his second straight 1-under 71. He’s third on the leaderboard whereas James and his brother, freshman Josh Duangmanee, are a shot behind him. Sargent says the brothers couldn’t be extra completely different. George is extra severe, methodical whereas Josh is extra care-free. Georgia hits a draw whereas Josh cuts it.
One of many solely commonalities between the Duangmanee pair is size.
“They each bomb it,” Sargent mentioned.
And the truth that each have been out and in of Virginia’s lineup this season; they boasted only one top-10 between the 2 of them coming into this week.
Sargent additionally sees some parallels between this 12 months’s staff and final 12 months’s group, which superior to the match-play quarterfinals at Grayhawk and took eventual NCAA champion Florida all the way down to the wire earlier than dropping. It was mid-spring a 12 months in the past the place Virginia suffered a setback, on the Linger Longer Invitational, the place the Cavaliers tied for eighth, 53 pictures behind winner Alabama. Virginia rallied after that with 4 straight top-3s to spark their run at nationals.
“You by no means know, what you assume is unhealthy may be good for you,” Sargent mentioned, “and it’s occurred to us each seasons.”
He wouldn’t thoughts a repeat of final 12 months’s NCAA stroke play – simply with a distinct match-play end result.
