Sooners defend title to close out fall season

Oklahoma closed out its fall schedule at the Ka’anapali Classic in Maui, Hawai’i over the weekend and walked away champions for the third year in a row.

The second-ranked Sooners shot a tournament-best 20-under on the first day of competition on Saturday and were 11-under on Sunday and Monday to win with a team score of 42-under par. Colorado finished six strokes behind them and was the only other school to shoot 10-under or better on all three days.

The Sooners brought two individuals in addition to the five golfers that competed for the team. Redshirt senior Jaxon Dowell was one of the two and earned his first career victory at 17-under.

“It’s always great to finish the fall with a win,” head coach Ryan Hybl said. “We’ve played well enough to win this thing a bunch, and we’re excited to take this momentum into the offseason. We always talk about being on the right side of momentum and this fall has been really good for us in that department. The guys have just done a great job this fall.”

Teammate Clark Van Gaalen shot 64 tied for the best score in the final round and birdied the final hole to come up one stroke short of Dowell. Van Gaalen wasn’t a part of the Sooners’ lineup either.

Jase Summy led the team with a sixth-place finish at 13-under. Asher Whitaker was their next-highest finisher at 10-under, who was tied for 12th along with teammate Matthew Troutman.

Ryder Cowan was one stroke behind them in a tie for 14th place.

Still, Hybl expected more than a victory from his highly-ranked squad.

“I felt like we didn’t really play our best this week and we could’ve made a push to be in that 50-under par range,” Hybl said. “So we’ve got some stuff we need to work out before we get iwnto the spring.”

The Sooners will have a break before starting up the fall season on Feb. 10 at the Puerto Rico Classic.