If the NCAA Men’s championships at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa are as dramatic as the final day of regional, college golf fans are in for a treat. Thirty teams among 81 total and six individuals advanced out of five regionals on Wednesday to play in the championships, May 29-June 3, that will crown this season’s individual and team titlists in Carlsbad, Calif. In the span of the past three days, one legendary coach who is retiring saw his team eliminated; another who also is leaving watched with emotion as his squad barely advanced; and the nation’s No.
1 team had to rally late to reach La Costa. The coach who bid an early farewell is georgia Tech’s Bruce Heppler, whose Yellow Jackets won 74 tournaments, 14 ACC titles and posted four NCAA runner-up finishes–but never won a national title. Ranked 22nd heading into regionals, Georgia Tech ended up finishing in ninth place in Winston-Salem, N. C., with the top five teams advancing.
In Athens, Ga., host Georgia battled to the end for Chris Haack, who is leaving the program after 30 years and two national titles. With five teams advancing, the No. 26 Bulldogs claimed the final spot by one stroke over the College of Charleston.
In the same regional, the No. 1-ranked Auburn tigers and star Jackson Koivun faced a huge upset as they battled into the back nine. Led by Koivun, who shot 67 in the final round, the Tigers produced a comeback that included four team birdies on the par-5 17th hole, and they ended up solo third, four strokes above the cutline.
There was one stunning individual performance among all of the regionals, with Virginia’s Ben James, who is No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, shooting 19-under (66-63-65) at Bermuda Run in Winston-Salem to record the lowest score ever in an NCAA regional. Koivun, ranked No.
1 in the OWGR and the winner of six tournaments this spring, tied for 10th in athens. Vanderbilt (28 under, Athens), 2025 runner-up Virginia and Pepperdine (36 under, Winston-Salem), Texas (45 under, Bryan, Texas), Florida (even, Columbus, Ohio), Oklahoma (34 under, Corvallis, Ore.) and Arizona (45 under, Marana, Ariz.) were the top-scoring teams in each regional. Defending national champion and No.
5 Oklahoma State finished second in the Marana regional, 14 shots behind No. 18 arizona in Arizona, the lowest-ranked team to advance from regionals was No.
44 Arkansas State, which edged No. 20 Alabama by one shot. The other teams that were ranked in the top 25 that did not advance were No.
7 Texas Tech, No. 12 Illinois, No. 21 New Mexico and No.
23 Long Beach State. Among the more intense finishes came in Corvallis, where the University of San Diego needed two playoff holes to defeat Liberty to advance.
