Arkansas Advances to NCAA Championship
CORVALLIS, Ore. – #6 Arkansas finished third (841 / -11) at the NCAA Corvallis regional and advanced to its 28th NCAA Championship, thanks to a final-round, 3-under-par 281 at the par-71 Trysting Tree Golf Club.
Three Razorbacks earned top 20 finishes. Erich Fortlage fired a 4-under 67, climbed 19 spots up the leaderboard and finished tied for 5th (-6). John Daly II tied for 13th (-4) and Gerardo Gomez tied for 18th (-3).
“Obviously, we didn’t have our best day yesterday,” head coach Brad McMakin said. “But I had full confidence they would bounce back today. I am extremely proud of the way they handled the pressure today and hopefully we can build on that next week. We’ve had a really good season so far and think we can make it a great one. This team has the ability to make it to the 8 (match play).
“After a slow start, Erich and John got us going in the right direction with an eagle and a birdie on #14, our fifth hole,” McMakin added. “Starting on hole 10, we knew we needed to play well early because you could score better on the back nine, and the front nine had played tough the first two rounds. We were able to climb the leaderboard enough after nine holes, then hit some quality shots coming down the stretch to advance.”
Oklahoma won the Corvallis Regional by 20 strokes, finishing with a score of -34 thanks to a 19-under round two. UCLA, which was tied for 10th after day one at -1, finished -at -14 with rounds of -8 and -5 to place runner-up. Top-seed Arkansas was third at -11 and Purdue, which was 10-over for the final round, took fourth at -10. San Diego and Liberty tied for fifth, with San Diego winning the playoff on the second hole to be the fifth and final team to advance to next week’s NCAA Championships.
Fortlage opened his final round with a bogey on hole 10. But from that point, he was bogey-free the rest of the way. In addition to his eagle on 14, the sophomore birdied holes 15, 16 and 18 before reeling off nine pars to close out his 67.
Daly led the Hogs through 36 holes and carded. A final-round, 1-over 72 to finish at 4-under and tied for 13th for the Regional.
Gomez, like Fortlage, had a bogey to open his round, but he answered with a birdie on 11. The sophomore dropped a shot on 17 and was the only Hog to play his back nine (holes 1 through 9) under par with birdies on holes 1 and 6. He fired a 1-under for the final round.
Cam Smith tied for 43rd (+2) and Thomas Curry tied for 55th (+6).
The NCAA Championships begin May 29 (Friday) in Carlsbad, Calif., at the Omni La Costa Resort – North Course. The 30-team field will cut to 15 after three rounds and the top 8 after the fourth round will advance to play for the team championship.
NOTES:
• This is the second time Arkansas has placed third at a Regional (also placing 3rd in 1996). Arkansas has now finished among the top 3 10 times.
• After a two-year absence, Arkansas makes its return to the NCAA Championship.
• The 841 is the third-best, 54-hole total by the Razorbacks at a Regional.
• The 207 by Fortlage ties for the fifth-best, 54-hole total by a Razorback at a Regional.
• This is the 15th time a Razorback has recorded a top-5 finish at a Regional.
• This was Arkansas’s seventh top-3 finish this season and ninth top-5 in 11 event played.
2026 NCAA Corvallis Regional
Dates: May 18-20 (Mon.-Wed.)
Host: Oregon State
Location: Corvallis, Ore. || Trysting Tree Golf Club
Par: 71 || Yards: 7,384 yards
Final Results (Top 5 teams after Rd3 advance to NCAA Championship):
1 #17 Oklahoma 275-265-278=818 / -34
2 #30 UCLA 283-276-279=838 / -14
3 #6 Arkansas 275-285-281=841 / -11
4 #43 Purdue 272-276-294=842 / -10
T5 #42 San Diego 280-288-275=843 / -9 *
T5 #80 Liberty 282-280-281=843 / -9 *
7 #60 Oregon State 276-279-291=846 / -6
8 #7 Texas Tech 283-282-282=847 / -5
9 #31 Notre Dame 287-291-281=851 / -1
10 #93 Xavier 281-291-286=858 / +6
11 #19 Charlotte 280-291-288=859 / +7
12 #56 Georgia Southern 282-280-298=860 / +8
13 #151 Sacramento State 287-299-280=866 / +14
* – San Diego won a playoff vs Liberty on the second hole.
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