Owls Enter C-USA Match Play as No. 1 Seed

Monday, April 25

Texarkana, Ark.

Florida Atlantic

Conference USA Championship

4/27/2022 7:04:00 PM | Men's Golf

Texarkana, Ark. – The Florida Atlantic University men's golf team finished the stroke play portion of the Conference USA Championship at -5 (859). FAU will be the top seed in the match play semifinals beginning Thursday. The Owls will face the No. 4 seed Charlotte (+6, 870). Max Sturdza (-5, 211) finished runner-up in the individual competition and earned All-Tournament team honors.

Quick Hits

The Owls went wire-to-wire in the team competition, earning a place in the match play semifinals for the first time in program history
Southern Miss. (-4, 860) and UTSA (+4, 868) finished second and third, respectively, and will face off in Thursday's other semifinal
In the individual competition, the Owls had three players inside the Top 10 led by Sturdza is solo second
The junior from Switzerland got off to a hot start on Wednesday with birdies on his first two holes
Sturdza would go on to post a one-over 73, good for a three-day total of five-under (211)
Middle Tennessee's Michael Barnard posted three consecutive rounds of 70 to take the title by one shot (210)
Jake Hibbert and Guilherme Grinberg each signed for 71 on Wednesday to tie for seventh
Alex Maguire tied for 26th and Juan Delgado tied for 39th

FAU Scores

Place	Player	Round One	Round Two	Round Three	Total
2	Max Sturdza (2)	68	70	73	211
T7	Jake Hibbert (4)	70	74	71	215
T7	Guilherme Grinberg (5)	72	72	71	215
T26	Alex Maguire (1)	71	71	78	220
T39	Juan Delgado (3)	73	73	77	223

Match Play Differences

Thursday's format shifts to match play which can require a different mentality compared to the past three days of stroke play. In match play, each competitor is one-on-one with his opponent. Each hole represents one point. The competitor who achieves a lower score on each hole wins the hole. At the end of the round, whoever wins more holes wins the match. Players are typically more inclined to play aggressively and take chances in match play since each hole is its own entity. To advance to the championship finals, the Owls need to win at least three out of the five matches against Charlotte.

SEMIFINAL Pairings

The Charlotte 49ers entered the week as the highest ranked team (No. 28) according to GolfStat and have three players ranked individually inside the Top 120. The finals will also be played on Thursday with tee times taking place later in the afternoon.

Tee times are local (CST)
8:00 am – Guilherme Grinberg vs. (87) Matt Sharpstene
8:08 am – Juan Delgado vs. (48) Dongjin Park
8:16 am – Jake Hibbert vs. Conor Gough
8:24 am – Alex Maguire vs. (111) Ben Woodruff
8:32 am – Max Sturdza vs. Carson Ownbey

Live Scoring

Match Play Central

What's on the Line

The Conference USA Champion will receive the League's automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Golf Regionals.

Owls on Social Media

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