By Joel Beall
The PGA Tour is one of the only American professional sports leagues without a direct funnel from the college to professional ranks. According to a Golfweek report, that could be changing.

Brentley Romine writes that a project is in the works, one that rewards tournaments and status for the sport’s best amateurs.

In response to the report, the tour released the following statement to Golf Digest.

“The PGA Tour has been working to develop a new program that will identify, prepare and transition top collegiate golfers to professional golf. This program will be designed to reward season-long collegiate play with varying levels of playing access to tours operated under the PGA Tour umbrella, while upholding the principles and virtues of collegiate athletics. The PGA Tour is working in collaboration with its players, Policy Board and various other stakeholders to design a mutually beneficial platform.”

Officials with the PGA Tour initially approached the Golf Coaches Association of America about a partnership roughly a decade ago, and the dialogue has been on and off to varying degrees since. At the moment, no launch date has been set.

Aside from serving as a feeder system into the game, the venture hopes to encourage amateurs to stay in school. Although not necessarily an issue in men’s golf, a host of women players have had to choose between beginning their professional careers in the middle of the college seasons due to the dates of LPGA Q school, now known as LPGA Q Series. The frequency became amplified to the point the LPGA now allows deferred status to those who qualify.

Romine reports that the criteria for status and tournament invites will be more than just a mirror of the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The report coincides with the GCAA convention meeting in Las Vegas this week.

The post Report: PGA Tour working on draft program for top college golfers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
There is little doubt who’ll have the biggest cheering section on Tuesday at Karsten Creek Golf Club. As expected, host Oklahoma State easily qualified for the matchplay portion of the NCAA Championship, posting the low 72-hole score (even-par 1,142) in stroke play, much to the satisfaction of the hometown fans in Stillwater.

There’s also no doubt who’ll have the most pressure on them as well. The Cowboys have won nine team titles during the 2017-’18 season, each increasing the anticipation for what might be as the team plays for the national championship on its home course. Given their familiarity with the Tom Fazio layout, as well as the talent on the squad—Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland are in the running for first-team All-American honors while Austin Eckroat, Kristoffer Ventura and Zach Bauchou have all also had standout seasons—anything less than a 11th NCAA team title potentially will feel like a letdown.

Still, OSU’s road to the title won’t be easy. As their “reward” for earning the No. 1 seed, the Cowboys face the second-ranked team in the country, Texas A&M, after the Aggies just snuck through to grab the eighth and final seed.

“We’ve played with them quite a few times,” said Oklahoma State men’s coach Alan Bratton. “Obviously, I’m familiar with the university. I’m from College Station. That will be a good match-up. They’ve had a good year, and we’ll need to be on our game, but I promise you we’ll be ready.”

Meanwhile, if Oklahoma State manages to advance to Tuesday afternoon’s semifinals, it could set up arguably the most anticipated head-to-head showdown since the NCAA Championship went to match play to decide the team title in 2009. The Cowboys could play in-state rival and defending NCAA champion Oklahoma. The Sooners earned the No. 4 seed in the match-play bracket and first face off with SEC champion Auburn in the semifinals.

In the other quarterfinal match-ups for Tuesday morning in Stillwater, No. 2 seed Duke plays No. 7 seed Texas and No. 3 seed Texas Tech plays No. 6 seed Alabama.

While playing a road game by being at Karsten Creek, Oklahoma men’s coach Ryan Hybl knows he’ll also have plenty of fans traveling from Norman and providing support. Hybl acknowledged, too, that there is a little bit of relief to have gotten to this stage of the championship, given expectations for his own squad to back-up their title from a year ago.

“I’ve gotten that question a lot this week about the pressure of defending. That was a year ago. …The pressure honestly is not on us. We’re not favored here this week, and we kind of like that.”

Here’s are the pairings for all the quarterfinal matches (all times are CDT):

The post Top-ranked Oklahoma State gets to NCAA matchplay on its home course, and now the pressure begins appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.