Sooners Surge Behind Senior Leadership

By John Rohde

Ryan Hybl took over as Oklahoma men's golf coach in June of 2009, but he considers 2011 to be his first recruiting class.

“That was legitimately the first class I could get my arms around,” Hybl explained of having no leftovers from a previous regime.

Hybl undoubtedly will wrap both arms around two members from that class after they play the final tournament of their collegiate careers.

The harsh reality of college golf is you're never exactly sure when that last tournament might come. Your team might not get invited to a regional tournament, which serves as the qualifying process for the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships and only the top five teams advance from each of the six regionals. Finish sixth or lower and your team's season is finished.

Thanks in large part to the senior leadership of Michael Gellerman and Charlie Saxon, the 2014-15 season continued for the Sooners in convincing fashion with an astounding 20-stroke victory at the NCAA San Diego Regional (May 14-16).

OU earned a berth to its fifth straight NCAA Championship by obliterating the 13-team field at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. The Sooners led wire-to-wire, posted the day's low total each of the first two rounds and won the 54-hole qualifier with a 21-under-par score.

All five Sooners placed in the top 25. Gellerman and sophomore Max McGreevy tied for second, freshman Grant Hirschman was 12th, Saxon tied for 14th and junior Beau Titsworth tied for 23rd. After two rounds, the lowest OU golfer was tied for 14th.

NCAA San Diego Regional Champs

The Sooners won the 2015 NCAA San Diego Regional by an impressive 20 strokes.

Saxon said he was particularly fond of the second round, when the Sooners sizzled with a 13-under total that lengthened their opening-round lead from five strokes over East Tennessee State to 22 shots ahead of runner-up Arizona State. At one point on the front nine during the final round, OU led by 31 shots.

“We went out and put a whoopin' on them,” Saxon said with a chuckle. “It was a great time. We had a lot of fun doing it. We have a lot of guys playing with a lot of confidence right now.”

All that remains are the NCAA Championships, which will be held Friday through next Wednesday (May 29-June 3) and consists of 156 players – 30 team qualifiers and the top six individuals from non-qualifying schools. The individual champion will be determined with 72 holes of stroke play, after which the top eight team finishers will compete in match play to determine the national team champion.

I give all the credit to them (Gellerman and Saxon) for being able to listen and learn and help create a culture that brought this program back. Sure enough, those two guys have been a huge part of that.
Ryan Hybl

For the first time in NCAA history, both the men's and women's championships will be staged on the same course – Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. – which played wickedly difficult for the women. Southern California was low team qualifier in the Women's Championship with a 72-hole total that was 40-over-par.

No player on the OU roster has ever played the Concession course, which is a collaborative design from Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin and carries the USGA's highest slope rating of 155.

San Diego was the Sooners' fourth regional crown all-time, with previous titles coming in their NCAA championship season of 1989, plus 1995 and 2001. It also was their third victory of the season and the 10th victory overall in six seasons under Hybl.

Of the 302 Division I men's golf programs, OU is one of only six that have advanced to the last five NCAA Championships, joining Georgia, Illinois, USC, UCLA and Texas. This will be the Sooners' 36th NCAA appearance.

That's rarified air, particularly for a program that ranked No. 100 nationally when Hybl took the reins. Gellerman and Saxon, both Academic All-Americans, helped lift that same program as high as No. 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and tied for No. 9 in the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) poll this season.

“I could talk for days about those guys,” Hybl said. “Those two bought in when we were ranked No. 100 in the country. I give all the credit to them for being able to listen and learn and help create a culture that brought this program back. Sure enough, those two guys have been a huge part of that.”

Gellerman

Gellerman came to OU via Sterling (Kan.) High School, where he was Class 3A state champion in 2009. He has made 46 career starts for the Sooners and in 12 events this season has had 11 top-20 finishes, eight top 10s and three top fives. Gellerman's lone collegiate victory came at last year's Wyoming Cowboy Classic, where he became the Sooners' first medalist since 2011.

“I've had a real consistent (senior) year,” Gellerman said. “I would have liked to have won, it just didn't happen. Hey, there's one more tournament. You never know.”

Saxon attended Cascia Hall Prep in Tulsa and won back-to-back Class 3A state medalist crowns in 2009 and 2010. He was Sooner born and Sooner bred. His parents, grandparents, “pretty much everybody” in his family had attended OU. “I love the school,” Saxon explained. “I've been going to OU football games longer than I can remember.”

Saxon won the 2013 Lions Classic, which was an individual tournament. In eight starts this season, he has five top-20s, two top-10s and one first-place finish at the Liberty Spring Invitational, where he fell short of medalist honors in a six-way playoff.

Hybl laughed when he thought back to Saxon's arrival four years ago. “He (Saxon) came in about 150 pounds soaking wet,” Hybl said. “He weighs about 205 right now. He was my shortest hitter when he got here. Now he's one of the longest. He's really changed his game.”

We (Saxon and I) wouldn't have decided to come here in the first place if we both weren't ready and willing to buy in. Once we got here, there wasn't any choice but for all of us to get better together, otherwise we're all just going to be embarrassed together out there.
Michael Gellerman

Saxon confirmed and said, “I've always loved working out, getting to the gym. It's just been a steady progress. I've gotten a lot bigger and am hitting it way farther. I'm a different person physically, no doubt.”

Despite his strong family lineage to OU, there was no guarantee Saxon would play for the Sooners.

“I never considered playing golf at OU until coach Hybl came in,” said Saxon, “You could just tell the passion and excitement he (Hybl) had for the program. He comes to work every day, fired up and ready to go, and that carries down to the rest of the team.”

Hybl's enthusiasm from the outset belied the program's tattered existence.

“It was easy to tell things were on the upward swing,” Gellerman said of choosing OU and Hybl. “We (Saxon and I) wouldn't have decided to come here in the first place if we both weren't ready and willing to buy in. Once we got here, there wasn't any choice but for all of us to get better together, otherwise we're all just going to be embarrassed together out there.”

Hybl's experience as a collegiate golfer has helped build relationships with his players.

Hybl arrived at Georgia (2001-04) as Golfweek's No. 1-ranked junior in the nation. He wound up becoming a two-time All-American with the Bulldogs and served as team captain his junior and senior seasons. Hybl also competed professionally on the Nationwide, Hooters and Tar Heel tours before retiring in April of 2009 due to a career-ending elbow injury.

“He was a good player, so he knows exactly what we're all going through,” Gellerman said of Hybl. “He's very personable. He's intense on the course. Off the course, he's a friend and a good guy to hang out with. We all have a good time hanging out together. Things just click.”

Charlie Saxon

Making the San Diego Regional even more impressive was the fact it came on the heels of OU's disappointing fifth-place finish in the Big 12 Championship (April 27-29) at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Suffice to say, the Sooners weren't pleased with their performance.

Hybl was quick to mention McGreevy was sidelined with a back injury and did not compete at Southern Hills. “We were missing him,” Hybl said of McGreevy, who has four Top-10 and five Top-20 finishes this season. “He's kind of like my little sparkplug. He can really get it going, get our team going. We knew the Big 12 (tournament) wouldn't define us. We knew there was still a lot of golf left, so we re-routed our thoughts a little bit and performed well at regionals.”

OU had a similar trend at the end of last season when it placed seventh out of nine teams in the Big 12 tournament and followed with a third-place finish at the Eugene Regional to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

On paper, if you're honest about it, we're probably not the best team in the country. But if we make the top eight and get into match play, we can go beat anybody. We're a really good squad.
Charlie Saxon

Did this year's Big 12 result influence OU rolling at the San Diego Regional? “Yeah, we definitely had a little fire in our belly,” Saxon said. “It (The Farms) was a great golf course for us. It was a ball-striker's course. Hitting fairways and greens, we do that very well – maybe better than most teams in the country. Some teams can scramble real well. We might have that a little bit less on our squad, but we hit the ball really nice tee to green. Makes golf kind of boring at times, which is great. Boring golf is good.”

What transpired at The Farms was anything but boring.

“It's always nice to get through regionals, there's no doubt about that,” Hybl said. “But to do it the way we did it was much more fun. I think our guys know we're a legit golf team, but we're still vulnerable if we don't play well. We're not talented enough to just kind of roll the ball out there and see what happens. When we do play well, we look pretty good.”

The Sooners have yet to advance to match play by placing in the top eight at the NCAA Championships. They missed by two strokes at Riviera Country Club in 2012; by three strokes at Atlanta in 2013; and by nine strokes at Prairie Dunes last season when they faltered in the final round after beginning the day tied for sixth.

“NCAAs are hard,” Saxon said. “There are no guarantees. You've got to go golf your ball. On paper, if you're honest about it, we're probably not the best team in the country. But if we make the top eight and get into match play, we can go beat anybody. We're a really good squad.”

The NCAA Championships will begin 13 days after OU's overwhelming victory at the San Diego Regional. Will the Sooners be able to retain the momentum they built at regionals?

“Yes, but I think you can lose momentum within a day, too,” Gellerman said. “That's how golf is. It changes quickly, just like it did from Big 12 to regionals for us.”

Perhaps Gellerman and Saxon will have a swan song that has the Sooners making their match-play debut.

About John Rohde

John Rohde is a respected name on the Oklahoma sports scene and will provide regular features for SoonerSports.com. Voted Oklahoma Sportswriter of the Year five times, Rohde has covered OU football and basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder, OKC/New Orleans Hornets, Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, the Final Four, Masters and PGA Tour. He spent over 26 years for The Oklahoman, serving as a columnist and beat writer. He can be heard on 107.7 The Franchise, the flagship station for OU Athletics weekdays from 5:30-9 a.m.