Photo by: Tim Cowie/Tim Cowie Photography
Some of the World’s Best Amateur Golfers at The Greenbrier This Weekend
April 25, 2019 09:00 AM | Golf
| 2019 Big 12 Championship Schedule The Old White TPC at The Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Admission and parking free Friday, April 26 8 a.m. - 1st Tee Oklahoma State (1), Texas (2) 8:22 a.m. - 10th Tee Baylor (5), TCU (6) 8:45 a.m. - 1st Tee Oklahoma (3), Texas Tech (4) 9:07 a.m. - 10th Tee Kansas (7), Iowa State (8) 9:30 a.m. - 1st Tee West Virginia (9), Kansas State (10) Saturday, April 27 The day two pairings will be based on 36-hole team totals and player rankings with their respective teams. First starting time will be at 8 a.m. with nine-minute intervals Sunday, April 28 The day three pairings will be based on 54-hole team totals and player rankings with their respective teams. First starting time will be 8 a.m. with nine-minute intervals Awards ceremony immediately follows conclusion of the championship |
Oklahoma State's Viktor Hovland, the No. 1-ranked amateur player in the world, shot the low amateur round at the Master's two weeks ago and he's not even the top-ranked collegiate golfer this year.
That honor goes to Cowboy teammate Matthew Wolff, who will also be playing at The Greenbrier's Old White Course this weekend.
So, too, will Texas' Cole Hammer, the nation's No. 10-rated player, and Texas Tech's Sandy Scott, rated No. 15, as well as Oklahoma's Quade Cummins, who checks in at No. 18 this week.
All of these guys are going to be on the PGA TOUR sooner rather than later.
Managing to steer the Big 12 Championships to The Greenbrier is the latest victory for fourth-year WVU coach Sean Covich, who seems to be getting a lot of wins these days.
His Mountaineers are ranked 48th this week, meaning they are virtually a shoe-in to make their first NCAA Tournament regional appearance since the program's revival in 2015. It will only be the second regional appearance in school history, the other coming in 1947 when PGA TOUR player Mike Krak performed for the Mountaineers.
Covich also has the nation's 68th-rated player in sophomore Matthew Sharpstene, a 6-foot-3 bomber from Charlotte, North Carolina. Sharpstene just missed becoming the first Mountaineer player to earn All-Big 12 honors last year when he placed 11th at the conference championships at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
On Friday, Sharpstene gets to sport the Flying WV in Flying WV country.
"I played at Southern Hills as a freshman, and that was a really good test, and I think The Greenbrier will be just as hard," Sharpstene said. "It's a great track and it will be challenging, but we're up for the fight."
Despite Old White's reputation in the golf world, Covich said he had to do a fair amount of convincing to get the other Big 12 coaches to agree to bring the championship to West Virginia.
Some were concerned about the weather in late April, while others were worried about the course being too hilly compared to Tulsa's Southern Hills, Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kansas, or Whispering Pines in Trinity, Texas – the three regular sites in the Big 12's championship rotation.
"I remember being out at Prairie Dunes two years ago and it was maybe 35 degrees and the wind was blowing up to 45 miles per hour," Covich recalled. "They had to cancel one of the rounds because the wind was blowing so hard, and some of the other coaches asked me what the weather was like at The Greenbrier."
Covich pulled up the weather app on his phone and punched in White Sulphur Springs, and it showed 62 degrees, sunny, with light winds blowing between 3-to-5 miles per hour.
"Sold!" they told him. "Let's go try it out and see what happens."
Another time, Covich ran into some of the Kansas staff at an event at Irish Creek, and they wanted to know how hilly The Greenbrier was. They were also concerned about the fairways and greens being dormant at this time of year. Covich alleviated those concerns as well.
"I said, 'Look, it's always green there. The first shot you tee off and it's a pretty flat golf course. When you think West Virginia, it's definitely flat."
Defending national champion Oklahoma State, the program that has produced Rickie Fowler, Scott Verplank, Charles Howell III, Hunter Mahan, Bob Tway and many, many others, is once again the favorite to claim this year's championship.
But sixth-ranked Texas, seventh-ranked Oklahoma, 10th-ranked Texas Tech and even 25th-ranked Baylor could give the Cowboys a run for their money.
Then there's 31st-ranked Iowa State, 33rd-ranked TCU, 37th-ranked Kansas and 48th-ranked West Virginia – all teams in good shape to be invited to play in the NCAA regionals this year.
That means nine out of the 10 Big 12 golf programs should qualify for postseason play, including the upstart Mountaineers now in Year Four of their golfing renaissance.
"I thought year four maybe we would have a chance to be a bubble team, but right now we're good," Covich said. "There is no pressure on our guys this weekend. Let's just go add some icing on the cake this weekend and see what we can do.
"We've already done all of our work, and we're trying to get ready for regionals," Covich added. "This is like playing in a world golf championship knowing you are in the Master's the next week. Everything we do there can only help us, so let's enjoy it."
Sharpstene, despite competing against 13 golfers currently ranked ahead of him in this week's Golfstat rankings, said his goal is to go out and win the title this weekend and earn an exemption to play in the PGA TOUR event at The Greenbrier this fall.
Why not?
"Honestly, I feel like I can go there and win because I feel like I'm just as good as they are," Sharpstene admitted. "I feel like I can compete with anybody."
Sharpstene has one advantage over the rest of the field in that he's played the course a couple of times now.
"It's is a left-to-right course, and I hit a cut, so that will be in my favor," he said.
Sharpstene said playing in events such as the Big 12 Championships at The Greenbrier is one of the reasons he signed up to play golf at West Virginia University in the first place.
"I think it's the best golf conference in the country and to be a part of that is special," he said. "Just getting to play against the best (amateur) players in the world is all you can ask for as a collegiate golfer. When you are competing against five top-25 programs, you can't beat it."
You can't beat it, that is, unless you beat them.
The tournament gets underway at 8 a.m. on Friday morning and continues on Saturday and Sunday. The Mountaineers will be paired with Kansas State on Friday with the two beginning on the first tee at 9:30 a.m.
Oklahoma State and Texas will begin on the first tee at 8 a.m. while Baylor and TCU will start on No. 10 at 8:22 a.m.
Oklahoma and Texas Tech will get underway at 8:45 a.m. on No. 1 while Kansas and Iowa State will start on No. 10 at 9:07 a.m.
The second round is slated to get underway approximately 5 ½ hours after the first round on Friday.
Pairings for the remainder of the tournament will be based off tournament standings.
Admission is free, but no seating will be provided on the course. Fans are encouraged to bring portable chairs and stools.
Parking is also free on a first-come, first-served basis at the Train Depot. A shuttle service will be provided beginning at 6:30 a.m. each day.
Players Mentioned
/ Golf
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