Utah's Kyler Dunkle had an adventurous round Sunday in the NCAA Men's Golf Championships, while BYU's team applied its Thursday score to the team competition and finished last among 30 schools at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Dunkle fell to a tie for 11th place with a 5-over-par 77 that included four birdies, three bogeys and three double bogeys. The Ute senior easily made the individual cut for Monday's final round, marking his last 18 holes as an amateur golfer.
BYU's season is over, with the field cut to 15 teams. For the second year in a row, the NCAA's accommodation of BYU's rules against Sunday athletic activity really didn't affect the competition. The Cougars made up ground on a few teams Sunday, while being idle, but Louisville remained ahead of them.
Having played one-by-one Thursday, the Cougars posted a 21-over-par total of 307, which was used as their third-round score. BYU shot 322 on Friday and 309 on Saturday, as none of the team's five players shot in the 70s for all three rounds.
Brock Stanger, the No. 5 player in the Cougar lineup, was BYU’s top performer, shooting 82-74-77. Peter Kuest, who otherwise had a phenomenal junior year, posted 77-77-82.
Dunkle has shot 69-71-77, falling from second place to a tie for fourth and then slipping just outside of the top 10 after Sunday’s round. A top-10 finish would a big achievement for the program, considering Dunkle is Utah’s first contestant in the national tournament in 13 years.
He’s also the last Ute athlete competing in the 2018-19 school year, with the women’s track and field team’s season ending Saturday in NCAA regional competition at Sacramento, Calif. Dunkle will launch his pro career this week in a Mackenzie Tour Canada event in Victoria, British Columbia.
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