Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Golf Prepares For Big 12 Championship
April 27, 2003 | Cowboy Golf
Oklahoma State’s golf team will be looking for its 49th conference title in the 57-year history of the program and its first since taking the crown in 2000 when it travels to Tulsa, Okla., for the Big 12 Championship at historic Southern Hills Country Club on April 28-29. The Cowboys enter the event as the tournament favorite after edging out Texas by a 118-114 count in a poll voted on by the league’s coaches. OSU will open play on the No. 1 tee at 8 a.m. on Monday and will be paired with the No. 2 seeded Longhorns and No. 3 Oklahoma. The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday.
OSU AGAINST THE BIG 12
The Cowboys have crossed paths with seven of their conference foes throughout the year and have posted a 13-3 mark against Big 12 schools. OSU has competed against Baylor (1-0), Colorado (2-0), Kansas (1-0), Kansas State (1-0), Oklahoma (2-0), Texas (4-3) and Texas A&M (2-0) during the 2002-03 season.
ABOUT THE COURSE
The 2003 event marks the first time in its seven-year history the tournament is not being contested at Prairie Dunes Golf & Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. Opened in 1935, Southern Hills Country Club plays to a par of 70 and was designed by Perry Maxwell. The historic track was renovated in 1999 by Keith Foster. Southern Hills has hosted 13 major championships, including three U.S. Opens and three PGA Championships. The 7,016-yard layout will serve as the venue for the 2007 PGA Championship and most recently hosted the 2001 U.S. Open.
OSU AT THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP
After winning the first two Big 12 crowns in 1997 and 1998, the Cowboys placed fourth in 1999 before regaining the title in 2000. After a fifth-place finish in 2001, OSU’s final-round surge came up just short in 2002, as Texas slipped past the Cowboys with a one-stroke victory. OSU is the only Big 12 school to win the title more than once and is the only institution to produce more than one individual champion. Three Cowboys; Leif Westerberg (1997), Charles Howell (2000) and Anders Hultman (2002), have claimed medalist honors for the Orange and Black. Hultman won last year’s event after carding a final-round 65 to force a playoff against Oklahoma’s John Kidwell, winning on the first extra hole. In the program’s 56-year history, OSU has claimed 48 conference titles and has produced 40 individual champions at the conference tournament.
