Golf

Dylan Wu knew he had been playing solid golf in the days leading up to Northwestern’s appearance in this week’s Gifford Collegiate Championship in San Martin, California. Still, it would have been difficult for anyone to predict just how dramatic the highly recruited freshman’s tournament would turn out to be.

Wu won the tournament, beating second-place Jake Knapp of UCLA by a single shot.

“I knew I had some things working for me lately,” Wu said. “In our practice round at Stanford earlier this week, I shot 65, so I was definitely feeling confident. Obviously I’m pretty ecstatic that things ended up the way they did.”

Wu entered Wednesday’s final round only one shot out of the lead after the tournament’s first two days but quickly saw that gap widen as Knapp, the overnight leader and Wu’s playing partner, came out red-hot.

“I think he was down as many as four shots at one point on the front side, so he really did a good job of hanging in there early,” head coach David Inglis said. “Since he was playing with the kid from UCLA, he was able to kind of go head-to-head with him down the stretch, and he ended up coming up very clutch.”

Wu battled back from his early deficit, carding birdies on holes 12, 13 and 14 to pull into a tie for the lead. His rally threatened to fall apart on hole 15, however, as his approach shot from 180 yards plugged in the sand underneath the lip of a greenside bunker.

“Honestly it was probably one of the worst breaks I’ve ever gotten and one of the most ridiculous holes I’ve ever played,” he said. “I had to play out sideways into the rough, and then my putt for bogey looked like it was going in. But it did a full 360 and spun out.”

Wu credited Inglis with helping him to stay composed after the costly double bogey. After pouring in a birdie putt on the tournament’s penultimate hole, he stood on the 18th tee just one shot back of Knapp.

“I just told him ‘Hey, make him make a birdie here if he wants to win this thing,’” Inglis said. “Then (Knapp) hit it in the hazard, and Dylan stuck his approach to four feet.”

Wu sank the putt, becoming the first individual champion for NU since now-professional Matt Fitzpatrick won early last year.

“Just a great feeling to close it out like that,” Wu said.

As a whole the tournament was a solid one for the Wildcats, who finished fifth in a 10-team field that included six of Golfweek’s top 30 collegiate programs. Despite the result, Inglis and Wu both expressed a degree of disappointment, as the team actually dropped two places on the event’s final day.

NU’s three-day total of 6-over 1,071 left them just two shots behind fourth-place Texas and five behind third-place Stanford. UCLA won the event, followed by University of South Carolina.

While Wu’s sizzling total of 9-under 204 paced the team, several other members also chipped in with solid showings. Senior Bennett Lavin and junior Josh Jamieson each turned in scores of 71-72-73 to finish at 3-over, good enough to tie for 21st place individually. Senior Matthew Negri and freshman Charles Wang finished in a tie for 34th at 6-over.

“As a whole, just a really deep team effort and a good way to head into the offseason,” Inglis said.

The Cats will be off until the Big Ten Match Play Championship in February.

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