Golf dominates field, wins NCAA Regional

On the heels of its Conference USA title, the UCF Men's Golf team played the NCAA Southeast Regional from Thursday to Saturday, and the results were historic.

Freshman Blayne Barber continued his stellar season, shooting a school-record 9-under-par 62 in the final round Saturday, helping the Knights finish with a 34-under-par 818 in the three-game tournament.

The Knights dominated the 14-team field that included three teams ranked in the top 15 — No. 1 Georgia, No. 11 Indiana and No. 13 South Carolina — finishing 11 strokes ahead of the Bulldogs.

Georgia tied Arizona and the Gamecocks for second place.

Here's what you need to know about the tournament:

Working their RedTail off
For the second time in as many tournaments at the RedTail Golf Course in Sorrento, UCF led wire to wire.

The Knights started off the regional with a 16-under-par 268 and followed that with rounds of 277 Friday and 273 Saturday.

The Knights also led all rounds of the Conference USA Championship at the same course.

The last time UCF finished a round not in first place was April 12 in the final round of the Bluegrass Invitational.

Two-headed monster
Both in the C-USA Championship and again in the NCAA Regional, Barber battled with a teammate for the individual title.

Barber's school record Saturday brought him two strokes behind teammate Brad Schneider.

Schneider nearly matched Barber on Saturday, firing an 8-under-par 63 to go with his 5-under-par round Thursday and even-par round Friday.

Barber's and Schneider's rounds Saturday were two of the three rounds of 63 or better, with the other coming from tournament winner Tarquin MacManus of Arizona.

Even or better
Every player for the Knights finished at even par or better.

Junior Devin Spies, who tied for 38th place, finished even at 213, and Simon Ward and David Johnson both finished under par.

"They feed off each other all week," UCF head coach Nick Clinard said of his team.

"They're obviously doing the best they can individually, but they're pulling for each other.

"We have great camaraderie and great chemistry. I think that leads to a lot of the good play as well."