Clemson, SC—To finish the last group round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship at Omni LaCosta North Course in Carlsbad, California on Sunday, Clemson moved up five places as opposed to beginning. Therefore, it finished 22nd in the nation. Since 2021 when Tigers placed tied for 13th place, Clemson has its best finish in men’s national championship. In Clemson history this is its 27th top 25 NCAA finish.
Swanson was led by Andrew Swanson on Sunday with a two-under-par 70 from Bluffton, SC who scored a total of 220 after wrapping up a period of play that was fourteen over par in three rounds. After three rounds he was among the eight players sharing the eighth best score among non-top fifteen teams.
On Sunday, Swanson recorded four birdies and two bogeys. His round included several pivotal long shots around the course including a bunker shot for a birdie from fifty feet on his eighteenth hole of the day(17th hole), and a twenty-footer putt for par on his sixteenth(7th) hole.
He then made a 55-foot putt for bogey on the ninth hole, his final hole of the day, to get into Monday’s playoff for one of the final four spots in stroke play finals.
Before that, he had carded rounds of 75-75 prior to his Sunday’s 70. He ended up in a tie for 27th place overall among individuals. In three rounds he has recorded ten total birdies which is tops among all Clemson golfers while he ranked sixth with an average score of just over par five holes.
Clemson was seeded 28th going into the contest, yet it gained six spots on that pre-tournament positioning. Clemson conquered some of the teams seeded above them like #17 New Mexico, #18 Oklahoma State, #19 Purdue, #22 Notre Dame and 25 North Florida.
The top fifteen teams in the standings will advance to Monday’s fourth round. The ACC has other advancing teams: Virginia (2nd), Florida State (4th), North Carolina (6th), Georgia Tech (9th). Wake Forest came in 16th place and missed making cut by two strokes.
Another player scoring well among complete field according to Jon also includes Jonathan Nielsen who shot one-over-par 73 on Sunday finishing tied-for-fortieth place. His performance included being six over par over fifty-four holes resulting in an outstanding group low scoring average per round during the season – 71.05 — along with twenty-under scores and fifteen under-seventy attempts throughout his career; this represents some of lowest numbers ever recorded by a Tiger golfer.