CARLSBAD — Eliminated Monday in the final round of stroke play at the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, University of San Diego head coach Evan Emerick summed up the effort simply: “The boys battled hard.”
The Toreros reached the fourth and final round of stroke play for the first time since 2010 and only the third time in program history.
Playing just down the road from where he grew up in Encinitas and attended La Costa Canyon High School, freshman Reed Arnaldo opened the championship with a strong first-round showing that helped set the tone for San Diego’s early position in the field.
Arnaldo backed that up with a steady start to Saturday’s second round before the day turned difficult, finishing with a 5-over 77 that included a quadruple bogey on the fourth hole.
He regrouped later in the round, getting a shot back with a birdie on the par-4 11th, but was unable to fully recover momentum.
Scripps Ranch High School graduate and San Diego native Ian Maspat, closing out his collegiate career, got off to a fast start, opening with a 6-under 66 in the first round to briefly tie for the individual lead.
“I went into the round with no expectations, I was just going to take it nice and easy, slow and steady, one shot at a time,” Maspat said afterward. “Hearing that my teammates got off to a nice start too got me going. I couldn’t have asked for a better start.”
The Toreros stayed in the hunt through Saturday as the field tightened, with freshmen Cooper Humphreys and Reed Piron each posting even-par rounds to help USD hold steady and sit tied for 12th entering the final day of stroke play.
The biggest step came Sunday, when the field was cut from 30 teams to 15 after 54 holes. Needing a composed finish to extend their championship run, USD delivered just enough, carding a 1-over team round and squeezing through to Monday’s finale by the narrowest of margins.
Afterward, Maspat pointed to the steadying presence of the team’s head coach as a key factor in his play.
“Evan just gives me that confirmation,” Maspat said. “He’s another set of eyes for me and another brain. I trust him and he trusts me.”
But Monday proved costly. San Diego stumbled to a 22-over-par final round and slipped to 15th at 24-over for the championship, ending its bid for match play after starting the day just five strokes outside the top eight.
“I played well for most of the week, except for today,” Maspat said. “There’s just a lot of positives that I’m going to take away from this week.”
On the championship side, top-seeded Auburn advanced to Wednesday’s final with a semifinal win over defending champion Oklahoma State.
Seventh-seeded UCLA also earned its spot in the final, continuing a postseason surge with a semifinal win over Arizona after eliminating No. 2 seed Texas earlier in the day.
Auburn captured the NCAA men’s golf national championship on Wednesday, defeating UCLA 4-1 in the title match to claim its second national title in three years. The Tigers secured the victory with match-play wins from Logan Reilly, Jake Albert, Jackson Koivun and Cayden Pope, while UCLA’s lone point came from Josh Kim.
