Bulls struggle with wind, back nine at Round 2 of NCAA Championships

A difficult second round at the 2025 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships dropped the South Florida Bulls back from 14th place to 27th on Saturday at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.

Following a +5 performance as a team in Round 1 with five early morning tee times, an afternoon start saw much more difficult course conditions on Saturday. The Bulls started on Tee No. 10 and finished +21 overall, including +19 on holes 10-18 that served as their first nine.

“I think that they feel worse about what they did out there than anything I can say,” said head coach Steve Bradley after the round. “I have no doubt they tried on every golf shot out there. We just didn’t have it maybe physically, execution wise, maybe mentally starting on the side with the wind blowing the way it was blowing when we started.”

“We just kind of ben a little bit, but you know we turned to the front and played a solid front nine.”

The best performance of the day came from sophomore Wilhelm Ryding, who overcame four straight bogeys between 14-17 to shoot -1 on the front nine. He sits at +3 for the tournament, in 57th place as an individual.

“The front nine is definitely easier. The wind was kind of dying down as well,” said Ryding. “I feel like I hit good shots all through the round, but of course on the back it didn’t end up in the right places.”

“We definitely have to take our chances tomorrow when we get them.”

Shubham Jaglan finished at +4 for the round to move to +9 for the championship, with Jake Peacock (+6, +4 overall), Nino Palmquist (+8, +11 overall), and Cooper Smith (+9, +13 overall) all coming in under expectations. The top four overall players will have their scores count towards the team total.

The top 15 teams of the 30 entrants will advance to a fourth and final team round on Monday, with the best eight proceeding to a single elimination match play bracket to determine the national champion.

The Bulls begin play at 1:07 p.m. PT on Sunday.