Kats move on to match play at CUSA Championship

Monday, April 22

Texarkana, Ark.

Stroke Play

Photo by: Wayne Grubbs

Kats move on to match play at CUSA Championship

4/24/2024 9:32:00 PM | Men's Golf

Final - Player Leaderboard (PDF)Final - Team Leaderboard (PDF)Match 1 - Tee Times (PDF)

TEXARKANA, Ark. – The Sam Houston Bearkat men's golf team did just what it needed to do on Wednesday and will take plenty of momentum into the Thursday's match-play portion of the Conference USA Championship at Texarkana Country Club.

For the second straight day the Bearkats fired the lowest team score of the round, a 10-under mark of 278, to finish stroke play in second place and qualify for match play on Thursday.

The Kats, who finished at -1 as a team in stroke play, will take on Liberty head-to-head on Thursday morning for a berth in Thursday afternoon's championship match. The Flames finished +1 for stroke play, including going -5 on Wednesday.

Louisiana Tech will be the top seed after finishing at -4 and will take on No. 4 seed UTEP (+12) in the other semifinal.

The Kats will tee off on hole No. 18 at 8:00 a.m. against Liberty, while the Bulldogs and Miners will start on hole No. 1. The winners will square off in the afternoon for the title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Individual play closed after Wednesday's stroke play with WKU's Luke Fuller taking the individual crown at –7 for the week. SHSU's top finisher was Gene Chaikangwal at -3, good enough for fourth overall after a final round of 72.

Josh German was behind him for the tournament by closing out a week of 73-71-71 to end in a tie for fifth. Meanwhile, two of the four scorecards turned in for Round 3 in the 60s were by Bearkats as Ting-Wei Hsieh and Bret Gray each had their best rounds of the week.

Gray rebounded from a 76-76 start to card a third-round 68. He scored four birdies on the front nine, including each of his final three holes, before closing one under par on the back side.

That round surged him up the leaderboard 17 spots into a tie for 14th, while Hsieh moved into the top 10 with a final round of 69 after closing strong with three birdies on the back nine.

Hugo Trommetter closed out the week in a tie for 34th with a final round of 78.