NCAA Men's Final Set: Oklahoma State V. Alabama

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Golfweek's Lance Ringler says the storylines are flowing in Wednesday's finale between Oklahoma State and Alabama. With OSU on their home course--the charm-free Karsten Creek--and huge crowds expected, Alabama faces hometown opposition in numbers possibly never seen since the format change. 

The Cowboys have won all year collecting nine victories in 12 starts and now they may be playing in front of the biggest home crowd college golf has ever seen.

They are talented and that talent has produced wins, which has created confidence. All five players are ranked in the top 72 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and all five players have a scoring average below 72.

This will be fun to see the two styles go head-to-head in an atmosphere that may be unmatched to anything we have seen and may ever see again in college golf.

 

Kevin Casey with the nuts and bolts of how the two teams survived some tight match-ups to advance to Wednesday's final.

Ryan Lavner focuses on Alabama's late season rise thanks to talented freshmen, including Wilson Furr.

“I’ve never been on a team with freshmen who can play this way,” senior Lee Hodges said. “I knew they’d be great players, but they’re even better than I thought.”

And to think, Furr couldn’t even crack the Alabama lineup in the fall, his game in disarray because of what was later described as the driver yips. Karsten Creek might be the last place on Earth that a player with long-game troubles would want to compete – “There’s a lot of crosses out there – it’s killed a lot of good players,” Seawell said – but Furr got his game back on track this spring with the help of swing coach Jeff Smith. In the semifinals, Furr routed his opponent, 7 and 6.

“They’re special kids,” Hodges said.

The final match-ups and times.

Golf Channel's coverage features the Golf Central Pre Game from 2-4 p.m., the Championship Match from 4-8 p.m. and Golf Central from 8-9 p.m. ET.

Earlier in the day, Texas's loss to Duke meant the end of Doug Ghim's career. The Masters low amateur and 2017 U.S. Amateur runner-up was joined by coach John Fields to talk with Chantel McCabe and the emotions were real as you'd expect from one of the closer player-coach bonds in the game.