Jakob Melin aced the 16th hole Friday at Omni LaCosta Resort on his way to an even-par 72 to lead Wake Forest, which was in 22nd place with only a few teams in the 30-team field still on the course at the men’s NCAA Championship in Carlsbad, California.
The Swede started fast with birdies on the first two holes and finished with the ace and two pars. But four bogeys in between prevented him from breaking par on the 7,480-yard course and left him five strokes off the lead in a tie for 39th on a bunched leaderboard.
Wake shot 8-over 296 as a team, 16 shots behind leader Oklahoma, which holds a five-stroke lead over Florida State, Florida and Texas. Jackson Van Paris of Vanderbilt, a Pinehurst native, was tied for the individual lead at 6-under before bogeying his final two holes.
Tom Haberer shot 74, Marshall Meisel and Scotty Kennon shot 75 and Kyle Haas had 81 for Wake, which hasn’t won a national championship since 1986.
The 72-hole tournament will have a cut to the top 15 teams and nine individuals on non-qualifying teams for the final round. The top eight team finishers in stroke play advance to the match-play portion of the tournament.