Auburn golf earns No. 1 seed for NCAA Championship match play

Auburn golf's hunt for a second national title will start as the No. 1 seed as the NCAA championships turns to match play.

>The Tigers shot 25-under as a team over four rounds, with Gilbert making the final birdie to secure the one-seed. Auburn earned the seed by beating Texas by three shots after the Longhorns double-bogeyed the final hole.

>Auburn vaulted into the lead with a second round team score of 16-under as Josiah Gilbert shot a 5-under 67 and world No. 1 amateur Jackson Koivun shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday, alongside Jake Albert.

>Gilbert led the way for Auburn, finishing third after shooting 11-under over four days. Koivun shot 7-under to tie for 11th. Logan Reilly shot 4-under and tied for 19th. Jake Albert tied for 32nd and Cayden Pope tied for 58th.

>Auburn will move into the quarterfinals for match play, with all five golfers taking the course. The quarterfinals and semifinals are Tuesday and the finals are Wednesday.

>The semifinals will air on Golf Channel starting at 5 p.m. CT Tuesday and the finals will air at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Tigers will face Stanford to open the match play portion.

>The Tigers won the 2024 National Championship led by Koivun's historic freshman season. He tied for second as an individual. He earned his PGA Tour card through an accelerated program during the 2025 national championship.

>Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports, Jax State athletics, the outdoors in Alabama and more for the Gadsden Times and USA TODAY Network. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@usatodayco.com.

>This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Auburn golf earns no. 1 seed for NCAA Championship match play