Neal Shipley sends Ohio State to Monday playoff at NCAAs; Masters invite on line
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Asked if lag putting was a strength of his, Ohio State senior Neal Shipley could barely get a word in before his teammates interrupted.
“Nope! Nope! Nope!” a few Buckeyes shouted, before Shipley confessed.
“Absolutely not,” Shipley said. “By far the weakest part of my game.”
To which senior Maxwell Moldovan chimed in, “It was there when it mattered, though.”
That it was. After birdieing three straight holes, including a pair of 25-foot makes at Nos. 7 and 8, Shipley stepped up to the tee at Grayhawk’s par-4 ninth hole and promptly spun a drive into the desert. He took an unplayable and then hit his third shot to about 50 feet.
Ahead of Shipley, Moldovan had gotten a 40-footer to drop for birdie that temporarily pushed the Buckeyes, six shots out of the top 15 to start Sunday’s third round of the NCAA Championship, to 25 over, a stroke ahead of Texas Tech, which over on the par-4 18th hole had just watched its star player, Ludvig Aberg, cap a 1-under 69 with bogey.
One putt and Shipley would send Ohio State into Monday’s final round of stroke play. Two putts would force a playoff with Tech at 8 a.m. Monday morning.
“You put in the work, and you practice it, and sometimes it stays just the same,” Shipley said of his speed on the greens. “And sometimes it shows up when you need it.”
Shipley put a good roll on his par lag, which slid toward the hole at what looked like perfect speed before stopping a few feet short.
“I was pretty wobbly over that fifth shot,” Shipley admitted.
Yet, he got it to drop, the exclamation point on a 3-under 67 that has Shipley tied for second individually with North Carolina’s Dylan Menante at 5 under, four shots behind solo leader Ross Steelman of Georgia Tech.
“That two-putt was amazing,” Ohio State head coach Jay Moseley said, “because we’ve been on him; he tends to really get aggressive on his putts, so that two-putt was pretty darn clutch.”
Moseley brought back all five starters from last year’s team that finished 23rd at the NCAA Championship, but with senior Patrick Schmucking battling a back injury – he played just two events this season before having surgery – he’d need someone to fill that spot. In stepped Shipley, a transfer who graduated after three years at James Madison.
Without a single Power 5 offer as a high-school recruit, Shipley got better every season for the Dukes. The summer before his third year, Shipley qualified for the U.S. Amateur on Ohio State’s Scarlet Course. When he entered the portal, Shipley reached out to Moseley, who wasn’t necessarily looking to add to his roster but had heard some good things about the Pittsburgh native. So, Moseley invited Shipley on a visit and later signed him.
“He’s a Big Ten type player, hits it long and straight,” Moseley said. “Since he’s stepped on campus, his ball-striking has been some of the best I’ve ever seen. When he makes putts, he’s hard to beat.”
For the first time ever, players will vie for the NCAA individual title knowing that a victory will come with a Masters invitation. Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, last year’s national individual champ, received an invite to Augusta National this spring, but that came retroactively.
Asked if he knew what was on the line on Monday as he attempts to track down Steelman, Shipley, who is planning on a fifth year at Ohio State next season, nodded.
“I’m aware, yes,” he said.
But he’d sacrifice all that to give his team a chance to qualify for match play.
“I want both,” Shipley said, “but for these guys, I want us to make it through that playoff, and I want us to get into that top 8. Tomorrow anything can happen.”
He’ll just need to keep that putter warm.