3 of a Kind

DU men prevail by a single stroke to earn third straight Summit League title

By Gary Baines – 5/3/2022

It went right down to the wire, but the University of Denver men’s golf team completed its Summit League three-peat on Tuesday, earning another automatic NCAA Regional berth in the process.

The Pioneers have won the last three SL titles, each time with a different head coach. They prevailed in 2019 under Erik Billinger, 2021 under Trake Carpenter and this time under Logan Goulding. (The 2020 tournament was canceled due to Covid-19 safety concerns.)

This year, DU completed another sweep of the Summit League golf titles, with the Pioneer women having placed first in their meet a week ago.

But Tuesday’s final round in Newton, Kan., was anything but a walk in the park for the DU men. While they were in the lead for the great majority of the final round, they came out on top by just one stroke over runner-up North Dakota State after being tied down the stretch.

DU’s scoring golfers on Tuesday played their final three holes in a combined 2 under par to bring home the title, with John Sand going 2 under in that stretch, Jackson Solem and Carson Griggs 1 under each, and Jun Ho Won 2 over.

Overall, DU finished at 14 under par for three rounds. The Pioneers put four players in the top 6 individually out of the 60-man field. Griggs (69-71-68) was second, five back of record-setting individual champion Nate Deziel of North Dakota State, while Solem (69-70-74) was fourth, and Sand (71-71-73) and Jun Ho Won (73-69-73) tied for sixth. Esteban Missura (72-73-75) was 19th.

DU, also the Summit League champion in 2014, will find out on Wednesday (2 p.m., Golf Channel) where it will be headed for the NCAA Regionals, set for May 16-18.

For all the scores from the men’s Summit League tournament, CLICK HERE.

About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. He was voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2021. Email: ColoradoGolfJournal@mac.com)