Lobos Fall Just Short of NCAA Championships
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s golf team remained in contention throughout the 2021 NCAA Albuquerque Regional, but fell just short of the top five on Wednesday, completing the Lobos’ season.
New Mexico completed the regional tied for seventh place (856, -8), just four strokes behind fifth-place San Diego (-12).
Freshman Bastien Amat, who was leading the field for the majority of the final round, finished tied for fourth (207, -9) to just miss advancing to nationals.
Amat, who posted a career-best score of 66 on Tuesday, posted his highest score of the tournament, 71 (-1), on Wednesday. He started on hole 10 and completed the back nine -3 following four birdies and a bogey. He went into the front nine leading the tournament, but suffered a trio of tough holes (#2, #3, #4), including a pair of bogeys and a double bogey, to end up even with just one hole left.
He birdied the final hole (#9) after an outstanding, long putt to total six birdies on the day and 14 on the competition, tied for 11th overall.
Amat was one of two Lobos to finish in the top 25 among the best in the nation as junior Brandon Shong finished 19th overall (213, -3). Shong registered 73 strokes in both rounds one and two, but carded his best total of the competition on Wednesday with a 68 (-4) to jump up 19 spots on the leaderboard.
Shong finished just behind Amat in birdies as well with 13. After compiling seven across the first two rounds combined, the junior collected six in round three alone to go along with UNM’s second eagle of the competition, a three on the par-5 hole #18.
Freshman Matthew Watkins finished the third round with an even par to complete the tournament +1 (T32nd). He was followed by 2021 All-Mountain West honorees, junior Sam Choi (219, +3) and sophomore Albert Boneta (224, +8).
Choi finished the competition tied for fourth in par-3 scoring (3.00, E).
As a team, the Lobos finished third overall in birdies (60), par-3 scoring (3.13, +8) and in par-5 scoring (4.45, -33).
The NCAA Regional marks the end of 2021 competition for the Lobos. New Mexico has a lot of eligibility on deck for next season as UNM has no seniors on the roster this year.
The Lobos wrap up 2021 as the Mountain West Champions, boasting the MW Freshman of the Year (Amat) and a pair of All Mountain-West honorees (Choi, Boneta) to go along with four top-5 team finishes and 12 top-15 individual finishes.