OU men's golf: Sooners drop in standings at Puerto Rico Classic

The No. 35 Sooner men’s golf team fell to No. 6 on the leaderboard at the Puerto Rico Classic in San Juan, P.R., after a second-round total score of 294.

The score was 10 strokes worse than the team’s first-round score that was good enough to put them in third after the first day of competition.

Senior Riley Pumphrey and junior Will Kropp still lead the team, but also dropped considerably on the leaderboard, going from tied at No. 6 to tied at No. 14 after both shooting one over par in the second round Monday.

While Pumphrey and Kropp still lead all Sooners on the leader board, junior Abraham Ancer had the best second-day performance of any Sooner, shooting even par for the second day in a row. Ancer overcame three bogeys by getting birdies on holes five, six and nine to break even.

The juniors score was good enough to put him in 21st place entering Tuesday’s final round.

Oklahoma still is in the competition at the No. 6 spot. No. 26 Georgia leads OU by only one stroke with a two-round total of 577, and fourth-place Virginia Tech is only three strokes ahead with a 575.

The one team that has distanced itself from the pack is No. 8 Alabama. The Crimson Tide was in first by a narrow margin after the first day, but has extended its lead to 13 strokes over second-place Purdue. Alabama’s nine under par performance brought its total score to an impressive 555.

While Oklahoma may not be able to catch the eighth-ranked Crimson tide, the team still has a chance to beat several ranked teams. In addition to Georgia, OU is within reach of No. 13 Clemson, currently just nine strokes ahead of the Sooners. In addition, OU already is on top of No. 5 Georgia Tech and No. 21 Oklahoma State by one stroke and leads No. 1 Texas by two strokes.

Greg Fewell

Greg is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Sports Editor, Assistant Sports Editor and Sports Reporter.