Sooners Eye 2009 Big 12 Title

April 26, 2009

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The University of Oklahoma men's golf squad seeks its first conference title since 2006 as the Sooners travel to the 2009 Big 12 Championship, held April 27-29 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. OU has recorded three top-five finishes on the season, including a win at the MacDonald Cup on Oct. 5, 2008.

This week's Oklahoma lineup features Eric Durbin, Liam Logan, Riley Pumphrey, Tyler Rody and Ryan Sirman. OU does not have a senior on this year's roster. The rotation for this week's event features a pair of juniors (Durbin and Rody), two sophomores (Logan and Sirman) and a redshirt freshman (Pumphrey) rounding.

Pumphrey, the Big 12 Golfer of the Month in October, leads the Sooners with a 73.67 season stroke average and also holds the low round of the year with a career-best 5-under-par 65 in the first round of the MacDonald Cup on Oct. 4.

OU is the eighth seed in this week's event and will play the first two rounds with No. 7 seed Kansas State and No. 9 Missouri. The trio tees off at 8 a.m. (CT) from the 10th tee on Monday, while opening afternoon play on the front nine approximately five-and-a-half hours later.

This marks the 10th time that the Big 12 Championship has been conducted at Prairie Dunes Country Club. The Sooners finished second in 2001 and 2004 in Hutchinson, their best result at the venue.

Oklahoma's lone Big 12 title came at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., in 2006.

TOURNAMENT NOTES:
• None of the OU golfers in this week's lineup competed for the Sooners when they placed fifth at the 2007 Big 12 Championship, the last time the event was held at Prairie Dunes Country Club.

• Eric Durbin, Liam Logan and Tyler Rody are the only three players competing for Oklahoma who have participated at the conference championship (all last season). Logan placed 31st in 2008 to lead this week's OU participants, while Rody and Durbin concluded the event in 33rd and 59th, respectively.

• The Sooners have recorded an average finish of 3.13 at the Big 12 Championship since 2001, third only to Oklahoma State (2.25) and Texas (2.13).

• Oklahoma is seeking its first top-10 individual finish since 2006 when Brodie Flanders (second) and Shawn La Fontaine (ninth) both placed high on the leaderboard in guiding the Sooners to their first Big 12 title.

FULL TOURNAMENT NOTES (PDF)

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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