Wake Forest shot the best team round of the tournament Wednesday to rally to finish fourth at the Amherst, Virginia, NCAA Regional and advance to the NCAA Championship.
Jakob Melin shot 65, Kyle Haas posted 66, Marshall Meisel and Tom Haberer carded 67 and Scotty Kennon added 68 for Wake, which shot 15-under-par 265 for the third round. Wake finished at 1-under 839, behind Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Tennessee.
The Demon Deacons shot four strokes better than first-place Oklahoma in the final round and at least 12 better than the other 11 teams. Wake will play in the NCAA Championship May 23-28 in Carlsbad, California.
David Ford, the nation’s top-ranked college golfer, did not advance and neither did his North Carolina teammates.
Ford shot a solid 69 Wednesday to finish at 4-under-par 209 in a tie for 11th place at the Urbana, Illinois, Regional. But the individual berth into the championship went to medalist Hunter Thomson of Michigan, who finished at 203.
The Tar Heels finished sixth as a team at 7-over 859, eight shots behind fifth-place Texas Tech for the final qualifying slot. Illinois, Oklahoma State, UNLV and Troy took the top four berths. N.C. State also failed to qualify at Urbana. Duke finished seven strokes behind the cut line at Reno, Nevada.
