Cinderella has arrived a day early.
The 11th-seeded Chattanooga Mocs placed third and were among the five NCAA Championship qualifiers out of the NCAA Bryan Regional, which wrapped on Tuesday, a day earlier than originally scheduled because of impending weather.
The 30-team NCAA Championship will begin a week from Friday at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California.
The remaining five regionals will finish on Wednesday, and we’ll recap them as the results are finalized:
Bryan Regional
Traditions Club, Bryan, Texas, Par 72
Advancing teams: 1. Texas (-45), 2. Texas A&M (-40), 3. Chattanooga (-23), 4. North Carolina (-19), 5. Tennessee (-18)
Eliminated: 6. TCU (-13), 7. Colorado (-11), 8. UNLV (-2), 9. UNCW (E), 10. Cincinnati (+8), 11. New Mexico (+11), 12. UTRGV (+14), 13. Miami (Ohio) (+18), 14. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (+73)
Individual champion: Luke Potter, Texas (-17)
Advancing individual: Jorge Martin Sampedro, UTRGV (-8)
The story: Chattanooga didn’t finish better than eighth in a tournament until its second event of the spring. It didn’t crack the top five until winning the Racer Intercollegiate in early April. That win and the Mocs’ eight-shot win at the SoCon Championship were their only finishes better than sixth heading into regionals.
And yet, Chattanooga will play its second NCAA Championship in four seasons under head coach Blaine Woodruff.
The Mocs became just the sixth 11 seed since 2009 to advance through regionals thanks to a third-place finish at the NCAA Bryan Regional. Chattanooga was in sixth after 18 holes before shooting 21 under over 36 holes on Tuesday – this regional finished a day early because of impending weather – to end up 10 strokes clear of the first team out, TCU.
“Early on this season, I felt like we were really talented, probably the most talented group I’ve had yet, but it was just a young group,” Woodruff said. “And I kind of threw them into the fire early with our schedule, played some really tough events, and we got beat up a little bit. But I felt like if we learned from that and as long as the guys didn’t get discouraged that we’d be in good position to do something special in the spring.
“Now did I expect this? I don’t know. It’s hard to say. But here we are.”
Between their two wins, the Mocs finished seventh at the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo, though they came away from that tournament, where they were tied for third with 18 holes to play, gaining a ton of self-belief.
“We’ve just been riding that confidence from there,” Woodruff added.
Like he’s done for much of the season, freshman Evan Rogers led the way with a solo-fourth finish while sophomore Ward Harris was T-17 and Camden Braidech, the only junior and only Moc with past regional experience in a lineup of mostly first and second years, was T-21.
A couple years ago, Woodruff had no clue who Rogers, who is from Duluth, Georgia, was when Woodruff’s former assistant, Nick Robinson, caught a glimpse of Rogers at the Junior Jones Cup. At the behest of Robinson, Woodruff traveled to watch Rogers play a week later and was impressed by the raw talent, even if Rogers’ lack of golf IQ led to some high variance in his scores. “I was like, I can’t let anybody find out about this guy,” Woodruff said. Rogers soon committed to Chattanooga and last summer shot up the junior rankings, placing third at both the Western Junior and North and South Junior. He’s now ranked No. 219 in WAGR.
Woodruff takes some pride in four of his five starters being non-transfers. He got emotional afterward thinking about this team’s growth these past couple years and was encouraged to find his guys at dinner Tuesday night already thinking about how they could beat Texas, which finished 22 shots ahead of them while playing the par-5s 29 shots better.
“Their minds had already shifted,” Woodruff said. “Yeah, they were excited they got through, but it was like, OK, how do we get better? How do we compete with Texas and those teams? So, I don’t think I have to do a whole lot. … We’re not going to La Costa just for a vacation. They’re ready to go.
“They believed this week, and now they believe even more, so who knows what they can do?”
Chip shots: Texas advanced to its 19th straight NCAA Championship, the longest active streak in the nation that would be four better than Oklahoma assuming the Sooners advance on Wednesday. The Longhorns have now won 11 regional titles. Texas shot 23 under in the second round, tied for the third-best 18-hole team score in relation to par in regional history. … Texas A&M is headed to its fifth straight nationals as the Aggies became the third straight fifth-seeded hosts to get through. … Despite its top player Niall Sheils Donegan battling injury and playing only the final 36 holes (5 over), North Carolina is headed back to the NCAA Championship after snapping a seven-year streak last spring. … Josh Hill shot 10 under over his last two rounds and Lance Simpson closed in 67 to lead Tennessee to a fifth-place showing and a third straight NCAA Championship appearance. … TCU was third after two rounds before shooting 2 over in the final round and dropping three spots to sixth. … New Mexico’s 11th-place finish equaled the worst finish by a 4 seed since the six-regional format began in 2009 (North Florida, 2015; Clemson, 2012).