By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Even though this is Mike McGraw's 21^st appearance at the NCAA Championship, including 13^th as a head coach, he doesn't ever take it for granted.
            That particularly hit home a year ago, when the Bears didn't even make it to an NCAA regional, which was the first time in his 25 years as a collegiate golf coach.
Just a year later, with basically the same team, Baylor advanced through the Morgan Hill Regional and is one of 30 teams in the field for the NCAA Championship that begins Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
            "We have one new guy in the lineup, but it's pretty much the same team we had last year," McGraw said. "But these guys focus in a different and better way this year, and the effort they've done in practice has been more intentional. It's been way better than it was before. I don't think they ever wanted that feeling again. And I know I didn't."
            Led by senior Johnny Keefer, who has a 71.58-stroke average, the Bears won the Bear Brawl and Border Olympics and had solid finishes at The Prestige and Cabo Collegiate in the spring.
            But it wasn't until last week's regional in Morgan Hill, Calif., that the team really put it all together, finishing fourth at 9-over 873 and five strokes above the cutline. Senior Tyler Isenhart was the Bears' top individual finisher, shooting 3-under-par 69 in the first round and tying for 24^th at 5-over 221.
            "It was a team effort all the way," McGraw said. Keefer shot 69 in the second round "when there was not a 69 on that golf course that day."
            After ballooning to a 12-over 84 in the second round, sophomore Drew Wrightson "had a round for the ages as far as the Baylor Bears are concerned," McGraw said. For him to shoot a bogey-free 69 "when we had to have him is absolutely inspiring."
            "It was huge," said sophomore Zach Heffernan, who had a counting score in each of the three rounds and tied for 32^nd at 6-over 222. "He's been playing great golf great recently. I struggled the last day, the other guys struggled, and he really saved us. And it was good for him to get his confidence back after the second round."
            Playing on a challenging Grayhawk course for the NCAA Championship, Baylor also has the advantage of already surviving arguably the toughest regional course. While four of the regional winners shot 28-under or better, Mississippi State won at Morgan Hill with a 54-hole total of 1-under 863 and sixth-ranked Pepperdine got the final qualifying score at 11-over 875.
            "The great thing about Grayhawk is it's difficult, No. 1," McGraw said. "You don't want a birdie-fest, you don't want that if you're playing a championship. It does challenge you off the tee, but there are wider landing areas than the eyes see. But visually, you see a lot of cactus and desert on both sides. I always tell the guys, you can line up 2,000 golf balls side by side, and all of them are in the fairway. So, there's got to be room for your golf ball."
            Four of Baylor's five golfers, including senior Luke Dossey, played a practice round at Grayhawk last year before Arizona State's Thunderbird Collegiate. Keefer, who had a top-10 finish at the ASU tournament, also remembers playing Grayhawk in a junior golf tournament.
            "I just remember how tough it is," Keefer said. "Staying present in the moment is really important out there. And making sure to limit your mistakes. Mistakes can pile on out there with how firm and fast these greens are, how tough the course can play. You just have to know that if you make a bogey or two, you can bounce right back. But at the same time, you don't want to keep pressing for birdies, because that's when mistakes kind of pile on."
            Paired with 28^th-ranked Arkansas and No. 33 Duke for Friday's opening round, 30th-ranked Baylor will start on the front nine and tee off between 9:27 and 10:11 a.m. CT.
            "We're playing early, so it'll be before the wind blows that day," McGraw said. "We'll be in contention if we play our kind of golf. And if we get there, you just never know how long. You might just decide to stay in contention all week long. I'm not worried about the first round as opposed to the last round. Last time I checked, you're playing 72 holes. Every shot you hit for 72 holes counts."
            The 30-team field will be trimmed to the low 15 after Sunday's third round, with the top eight following Monday's final round of stroke play advancing to match play.
            "I think all of us were hungrier this year. We kind of took that as a motivation rather than a downer," Keefer said of not making a regional last year. "Obviously, coming here, we have one goal. And that's to win a national championship. Mindset doesn't really change for us. I don't think we're coming here to make one or two cuts or just get to match play. I think we're here to beat some teams."
 

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Baylor men's golf will make its 10th appearance in the NCAA Championship when it opens play Friday morning at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
 
The Bears' last championship appearance came at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., in 2019. Friday will mark BU's fifth appearance in eight seasons under Mike McGraw. Making his 21^st appearance at the NCAA Championships as a coach, McGraw never gets tired of being one of the last teams in the country still standing.
 
"I don't take this for granted, and I've been to a lot of them," he said. "It is a great feeling. I love being here. I love the feeling you get when you go to a tournament and say this is a championship. You ask yourself, what kind of golf did I bring here this week, and how do I take that golf and kind of map it out on a golf course I haven't seen in a while? It might be tougher than I've seen in a while, so the opportunity is amazing. I don't take it for granted."
 
In his fourth season, Johnny Keefer will make his first appearance in the NCAA Championships at the No. 1 position. Keefer is coming off a tie for 15^th at the Morgan Hill Regional, where he fired a pair of rounds at par or better, including a second-round 69, which tied his career-best postseason round. The senior has played at No. 1 in every event over the last two seasons. Still, the San Antonio native feels no extra pressure.
 
"We're participating as a team," he said. "Golf is an individual sport, but I think the team, as a whole, is way more important. I could have looked at last week as a really big disappointment because, going into the final round, I was in contention. But at the same time, I couldn't have been any happier. We're here this week, so I think it's the same as every other tournament. I obviously want to play my best, but I'm looking out for the team, and I think everyone else is doing the same, and we're all in this together."
 
Drew Wrightson will play at the No. 2 position for the sixth tournament in a row. Four of his last seven rounds have been at par or better, with three in the 60s. The last time we saw the sophomore, he turned in a bogey-free 69 in the final round of the Morgan Hill Regional.
 
Tyler Isenhart enters Grayhawk with four-straight tournaments with at least one round at par or better, including an opening-round 69 at Morgan Hill in the regional. The senior leads the team in par-3 scoring average (3.07) and total pars (371).
 
Luke Dossey will make his third-straight appearance in the lineup. The senior fared well in BU's last trip to the desert, finishing tied for 20^th at the ASU Thunderbird Collegiate in April at Papago Golf Club.
 
Zach Heffernan tied for 32^nd in his NCAA regional debut in Morgan Hill. The sophomore has made each of the last four starts in the lineup, and he is looking forward to competing at Grayhawk.
 
"We played it [Grayhawk] last year when we played in Arizona State's tournament," he said of his familiarity with the course. "I like it. It's kind of tight off the tee, but it's probably not going to play near as hard this week as the last time we were here. But we were lucky to play a tough course at regionals, so I think we got lucky, and [The Institute] prepared us for this week."
 
The Bears will be paired with Arkansas and Duke for the first two rounds and tee off on No. 1 beginning at 9:27 a.m. CT on Friday. The teams will play with the same teams for the first two rounds and then be re-paired for round three based on their scores.
 
After Sunday's third round, the 30-team field will be trimmed to the top 15 for Monday's final round of stroke play, with the top eight advancing to the match play quarterfinals on Tuesday.
 
Once available, tee times, live stats and scoring will be available at Golfstat.com. For more information on Baylor Men's Golf, follow @BaylorMGolf on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.