Papito Gonzalez and the rest of the University of Houston men’s golf team automatically qualified for the NCAA championships on Wednesday after placing third in the team standings at a regional tournament in Franklin, Tennessee.
Gonzalez graduated from McAllen Memorial High School in 2013 and is in his third year competing at the collegiate level. Gonzalez compiled a three-day score of 221, five over par, scoring a three-day low of 69 Wednesday.
To qualify for the NCAA championships, teams must place in the top five at one of the six regional competitions throughout the nation. The championships are May 27 through June 1 in Eugene, Oregon.
Houston entered Wednesday at the Vanderbilt Legends Club ranked sixth in the team standings, but scored 16 under par to solidify an automatic bid.
“We had a really good day,” Gonzalez said. “We made a lot of greens. We knew we had to go really low today. I think today was the second-lowest (one-day) team score for the tournament. We were very happy.”
This is Gonzalez’s first time qualifying for nationals.
Though Houston jumped three spots in the team standings, Gonzalez says he and his teammates weren’t aware of their accomplishment until late in the afternoon. After the 17th hole, he inquired on his team’s status and was told of the Cougars’ solid outing on the links. Wednesday capped a two-day rally that saw Houston place as low as eighth in the 13-team field.
“There was a lot of pressure,” Gonzalez said. “We treated it as if it were the playoffs. We knew it was do-or-die. We had to shoot around 15 under to have a chance. We knew exactly what we had to do.”
Other teams to qualify for nationals from the Franklin regional include Texas, who placed first, Vanderbilt, LSU and Washington.
With a little more than a week to ready for the trip to Eugene, Gonzalez says he will look to familiarize himself with courses that are similar to the one at nationals — bent-grass greens that equate to faster putts.
“We just have to go out there and not get in our own way,” Gonzalez said. “That happened to us on our first day. We can’t do that at the national level. There will be too many good teams there.”
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