🏌️♂️ Jayhawks in 10th, King in 6th after 2nd Round of Norman Regional
NORMAN, Okla. – Freshman Will King and junior William Duquette both shot under-par rounds Tuesday at the NCAA Norman Regional at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club as the Jayhawks finished the second round in 10th, with King inside the Top 10 in sixth, at -5, on the individual leaderboard.
Kansas is +1 through two rounds, after shooting a 1-over team score of 289 on Tuesday. Alabama, ranked No. 17 nationally, is leading the tournament at -15, while No. 9 Oklahoma is second at -13, and No. 5 Texas Tech is third at -11. Colorado is tied with the Red Raiders in third, while 44th-ranked North Florida is setting the cut line at -10 in fifth place.
The Jayhawks are nine shots behind sixth-place Duke, five shots behind seventh-place LSU and four shots behind No. 20 Ole Miss in eighth. Wake Forest, ranked No. 29, is two shots ahead of Kansas in ninth.
King, who fired a 68 in his first ever postseason round on Monday, backed it up with another strong 18 on Tuesday. For the second straight day, he opened his round with two straight birdies. After a bogey on No. 4, he birdied the par-five eighth and shot a 2-under 34 on the front nine. That’s where he remained heading into the 17th, where he ran into his first trouble of the tournament with a double bogey. But the Olathe native responded on the par-five 18th with a birdie to card a 1-under 71 and move into sixth place.
King is four shots behind leader Ludvig Aberg from Texas Tech. Oklahoma’s Drew Goodman is second at -8, while Alabama’s Nick Dunlap shot a 71 and is in third at -7. Davis Lee from North Florida and Hugo Townsend from Ole Miss are tied for fourth at -6.
Duquette overcame a bogey on his opening hole to card a 71 on the day and move to even for the tournament. The junior shot a 1-over 37 on the front, but then birdied holes 10 and 13 to get under par for his round. After a bogey on No. 17, Duquette birdied the 586-yard par five 18th to get back into the red for his day and shoot a 2-under 34 on the back. He is tied for 33rd after two rounds.
Junior Davis Cooper shot a 1-over 73 and is tied for 50th at +3, as is fellow junior Cecil Belisle, who shot a 74 on Tuesday. Junior Gunnar Broin shot a 75 and is tied for 61st.
Kansas will tee off on Wednesday in the third and final round beginning at 9:25 a.m., on hole No. 10. Broin will lead things off with Belisle, Cooper, Duquette and King following in order. Kansas will be grouped with Louisiana and University of North Carolina-Wilmington for the second time this tournament.
Live stats will be available through Golfstat.
