Arizona men’s golf advances to match play of NCAA Championships

For the first time in school history, Arizona men’s golf has advanced to the 8-team match play portion of the NCAA Championships.

class="has-text-align-none">Arizona’s Tianyi Xiong and Zach Pollo came up clutch down the stretch of stroke play, and the Wildcats qualified for quarterfinals as the No. 6 seed. The UA will take on No. 3 seed Vanderbilt on Tuesday morning, with the winner advancing to semifinals later in the day.

class="has-text-align-none">Arizona finished stroke play at 3-under par, one shot ahead of the cut at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. Four teams finished the fourth and final round of stroke play at 2-under and advanced to a playoff to determine the last two qualifying teams.

class="has-text-align-none">Arizona’s chances of qualifying for NCAA match play looked promising for most of the day, but a string of late bogies put the Wildcats on the wrong side of the cut with two holes remaining.

class="has-text-align-none">Xiong overcame a bogie on 16 by birdieing 17 and 18, and Pollo secured his only birdie of the day on 18 to move Arizona one stroke ahead of the logjam at 2-under.

class="has-text-align-none">Filip Jakubcik, Arizona’s stalwart senior, parred on 18 to clinch Arizona’s position in match play. Jakubick and Xiong both shot even par on Monday to pace the group, while Pollo shot 1-over and William Wistrand shot 3-over.

class="has-text-align-none">Jakubcik finished stroke play at 10-under to take fourth in the individual competition.

class="has-text-align-none">Auburn won stroke play with a 25-under par and will be the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals.

class="has-text-align-none">While the UA has put together top finishes at the NCAAs in the past, including winning the 1992 national championship, the Wildcats had never advanced to match play since its introduction in 2009. The closest coach Jim Anderson’s program had come was a 15th-place finish in 2024.

class="has-text-align-none">Golf Channel will air quarterfinals and semifinals action Tuesday. Live stats can be found here.

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