Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent and Texas A&M’s Blanca Fernández García-Poggio won the individual stroke play titles at the East Lake Cup which got underway on Bobby Jones’ home course in Atlanta on Monday.
Sargent claimed the men’s title with a 4-under 68 while Fernández García-Poggio’s 2-under 70 was good for a two-stroke win over seven others who finished at even par.
Behind a 3-under 69 by freshman Luke Potter, Arizona State earned the top seed in the match play competition which gets underway on Tuesday. In addition to Potter, Jose Luis Ballester (70), Preston Summerhays (71) and Michael Mjaaseth (71) contributed to the Sun Devils’ team score of 7-under 281, which was six strokes clear of second place Texas at 1 under.
The Sun Devils will draw fourth-seed Pepperdine (4 over) in one of Tuesday’s semifinal matches while the Longhorns will take on No. 3 seed Vanderbilt (E).
Take a bow, Gordon. 👏 pic.twitter.com/u87VZjCoOh
— Vanderbilt Men's Golf (@VandyMGolf) October 24, 2022
The drama in deciding the men’s individual winner occurred not on the course, but in the scorer’s tent.
Initially, it seemed as though Sargent had tied for the individual title with Potter and Derek Hitchner of Pepperdine at 3 under and it wasn’t until the players were going over their cards that it was discovered the walking scorer had entered a par for Sargent on the fifth hole, when in fact, he made a birdie.
The discrepancy wasn’t detected by Golf Channel until Sargent and his playing partners Summerhays of Arizona State, William Mouw of Pepperdine, Summerhays and Travis Vick of Texas emerged from the scorer’s tent.
Fernández García-Poggio was seemingly on cruise control after she chipped in for an eagle on the par-5 15th hole to go to 5-under on the day. It proved to be enough of a cushion to withstand a double bogey on the par-4 16th and a bogey on the 17th to earn the senior from Madrid, Spain, a two-stroke win over seven other golfers who finished at even par, a pack which included Aggie teammates Zoe Slaughter and Adela Cernousek.
The win marked the second individual title of her collegiate career.
Texas A&M, ranked third in the most current Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, finished at 1 under to earn the top seed of the match play portion of the tournament and will meet fourth-seed UCLA (plus 18) in a semifinal match on Tuesday.
Golf Channel will provide live coverage of Tuesday’s semifinals along with Wednesday’s championship match beginning at 3 p.m. ET from historic East Lake.
For more on the East Lake Cup from our partners at AmateurGolf.com, click here.
