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PROVO — BYU men's golf finished higher at the NCAA championships than the Cougars have in nearly two decades, but fell short of the tournament's match-play portion.
Led by senior Zac Jones' 1-under-par 71, the Cougars finished at 18-over and a tie for 13th with Vanderbilt at the conclusion of the stroke-play competition Monday at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.
The top-eight teams qualified for match play, with Arizona State at the top of the leaderboard at 14-under. The fifth-ranked Sun Devils were led by former Farmington product and two-time Utah state amateur champion Preston Summerhays, who tied for the team's low round at 4-under 68 Monday afternoon.
Arizona State will open match play Tuesday against eighth-seeded Ole Miss. Auburn, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma also qualified for the match-play portion of the tournament.
BYU has never played in match play at the NCAA championships since the format was added in 2009. Monday's T13 is the Cougars' highest finish since 2006.
Reigning Utah state amateur champion Cole Ponich added even-par 72 to BYU's final round. Tyson Shelley added 1-over 73, and Simon Kwon shot 4-over 76 for the Cougars, who got a non-counting 84 from Peter Kim.
Round 4, let's go⛳️ pic.twitter.com/O2cV38pgtO
— BYU Men's Golf (@BYUmgolf) May 26, 2025
Shelley, Kwon and Kim are all set to return to BYU next year, joining a squad that will welcome one of the top junior golfers in the country in Lone Peak's Kihei Akina. The three-time Utah state medalist was rated the No. 4 junior golfer in the country by Golf Channel a year after earning USA Today's boys golfer of the year award in 2023 as a junior.
The Cougars also signed Oklahoma State transfer Parker Bunn, the Ogden native and former 5A state individual champion at Bonneville High before redshirting his freshman season with the Cowboys. Bunn has four years of eligibility remaining.
"Parker is a great addition to our golf program," BYU director of golf Todd Miller said of Bunn. "He is a strong kid who has a solid golf swing. We were disappointed that we didn't get him right out of high school so it feels good to get him a year later through the portal."
