Jones' top-4 finish helps BYU golf to 2nd at NCAA regional, clinch championship berth

For the fourth time in five seasons, BYU men's golf is headed back to the NCAA championships.

Zac Jones finished tied for fourth with a three-day total of 1-under-par 215, and Max Brenchley, Carson Lundell and David Timmins each added top-20 performances to help the Cougars finish second at the NCAA's Morgan Hill Regional at The Institute Golf Club in Morgan Hill, Calilfornia.

Brenchley shot 1-over 72 Wednesday to finish tied for 17th, and Timmins and Lundell both finished tied for 20th at 4-over. BYU's fifth scorer Tyson Shelley added a 4-under 68 — the second-lowest score of the final round — to finish tied for 37th overall.

Teeing off among the early group of teams, Jones birdied three of his first five holes to jump into the lead, and took a share of the lead into his final nine with a 3-under 33 at the turn. The Lone Peak graduate got into trouble later, though, and carded double bogey on the par-4, 478-yard fourth hole and back to-back bogeys immediately thereafter.

Jones pulled one back with a birdie on the par-3, 203-yard eighth hole, before finishing at 1-over 73.

But the Cougars got a major boost from Shelley, whose 68 was just two strokes off his career-low at BYU. The Skyline High graduate hit back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to help BYU hold off third place Florida State by three strokes.

Baylor finished fourth in the regional at 9-over, followed by Pepperdine at 11-over. Mississippi State won the regional at 1-under 863, and Florida State's Luke Clanton shot 70 all three days to finish at 6-under for medalist honors.

The top five teams in each region, as well as the top scorer not on any of the qualifying teams — in this case, LMU's Riley Lewis, who edged North Carolina State's Max Steinlechner in a three-hole playoff to advance — qualified for the NCAA championships May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Because of BYU's longstanding no-Sunday play rule, the Cougars will play their third round on Thursday, May 25. Those scores will then be added to the team total and individual scorecards after the third round Sunday afternoon.

The Cougars' "moving day" in the regional round came Tuesday, when Brenchley carded three birdies on the back nine to shoot 1-under 71 and powered BYU from ninth place to fifth — and right back into contention for an NCAA championship berth. Jones, the reigning Utah state amateur champion, added 1-over 73 Tuesday afternoon and was tied for fourth place, while Lundell added 1-under 69 to move into the top-15.

Also in the Morgan Hill regional, Utah's Javier Barcos finished tied for 37th at 7-over.

In the Las Vegas regional, former two-time Utah state amateur champion Preston Summerhays carded a three-day total of 19-under 197 to finished third and help Arizona State hold off Stanford atop the regional at Bear's Best Las Vegas.

Utah Valley's Brady McKinlay carded a three-day total of 9-under 207 for a tied for 22nd.

The senior from Alberta, Canada, shot 6-under 66 in Tuesday's second round to surge into a tie for fifth, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5, 599-yard eighth hole that included a chip-in from 20 yards out in addition to five birdies. He then got a run late in the final round, carding consecutive birdies among his four of the day before shooting 7 on the par-4, 463-yard 18th hole and dropping eight spots.

In the Salem regional, former Weber High golfer Connor Howe, ranked No. 54 in the World Golf amateur rankings in his fifth season at Georgia Tech, added a pair of 68s to his first-round total of 63 to finish tied for third at 15-under 201 and help the Yellow Jackets top regional honors at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls in South Carolina.

Howe, whose twin brother Hunter plays at Utah, finished in style in carding six birdies and an eagle on the back nine en route to a 6-under 66 in the final round.

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