Mountaineer Golf Heads to Big 12 Match Play

Mountaineers Head to Big 12 Match Play

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (Oct. 10, 2019) – Fresh off a victory at home, the West Virginia University golf team heads to Houston, Texas, for the Big 12 Match Play Tournament. The event will take place at The Club at Houston Oaks from Friday through Sunday.

West Virginia enters the event as the No. 5 seed and a member of Pool A. Teams are seeded based on Big 12 coaches’ rankings and assigned to one of two pools. The Mountaineers are currently ranked No. 25 in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll and come in at No. 22 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Teams in Pool A include Texas Tech (1), Texas (4), WVU (5), TCU (8) and Iowa State (9), while Pool B is Oklahoma (2), Baylor (3), Oklahoma State (6), Kansas (7) and Kansas State (10).

For the second consecutive season, teams will compete at the par-71, 7,007-yard Club at Houston Oaks. The tournament will feature match play rather than stroke play, as match play is used to determine the NCAA Champion each season.

During the pool play portion, each team will play matches during four sessions and have one session off. Teams will get three points for a win and one point for a draw. During the final round, the first-place match will feature the team with the highest point total from Pool A competing against the team with the highest point total from Pool B. The third-place match will be between the teams with the second-highest point totals from their respective pools. Each team will participate during the final afternoon.

The Mountaineers will face No. 4 seed Texas starting at 9 a.m. ET on Friday and will have the afternoon session off. The squad returns to the links on Saturday to face No. 1 Texas Tech at 9 a.m. ET before squaring off with No. 8 seed TCU at 2:30 p.m. WVU will face Iowa State at 9 a.m. ET Sunday before awaiting its opponent for the final round.

Seniors Philipp Matlari and Etienne Papineau, juniors Matthew Sharpstene, Mark Goetz and Logan Perkins, sophomore Kurtis Grant and freshman Nico Lang will travel for the Mountaineers. Six players will represent each team per match.

“The Big 12 Conference is consistently considered the premier conference for college golf and this year’s Match Play tournament will once again prove to be challenging,” coach Sean Covich said. “We are excited to compete against some of the best teams in college golf and best players in amateur golf. Houston Oaks always provides a great course for this Match Play format and I can’t wait to see how our guys perform. We grew up as a team and a program last year in some tight matches versus Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and TCU, so I know our boys are ready to show just how far we’ve come since last season.”

Follow @WVUSports and @WVUGolf on Twitter

via WVU Sports