Arkansas Needs Sunday Surge After Tough NCAA Championship Round

Arkansas didn’t get the round it needed Saturday at the NCAA Championships.

The sixth‑ranked Razorbacks posted a 10‑over 298 on the North Course at Omni La Costa and slipped into a tie for 20th after two days, sitting at 586 for the tournament.

They’ll need a move Sunday to climb into the top 15 and earn a spot in Monday’s final round of stroke play. Right now, the cut line sits at 3‑over.

Auburn set the pace with a blistering 16‑under 272, jumping eight shots clear of Texas and Vanderbilt. Arkansas didn’t have anything close to that kind of round, but it wasn’t without a few bright spots.

Gerardo Gomez, Erich Fortlage, and John Daly II each turned in 74s. Gomez opened with a birdie on his second hole and got back to even with another on No. 4, but a run of late bogeys kept him from going lower.

Congrats to Erich and Gerardo on earning All-Central Region @GolfCoachesAssn @PingTour 🐗⛳️ pic.twitter.com/z7g9Z5OpRf

— Arkansas Men's Golf 🐗 (@RazorbackMGolf) May 30, 2026

Fortlage and Daly each made four birdies. Fortlage kept the card mostly clean outside of two bogeys and two doubles. Daly nearly had his first collegiate ace on the par‑3 16th, his seventh hole of the day.

Cam Smith shot 76 and Thomas Curry finished with a 77.

Arkansas has work to do, but there’s still a path to Monday if the Razorbacks can put together their best round of the week.

2026 NCAA Championship

• Stroke Play: May 29-June 1 (Fri-Mon.)
• Location: Omni La Costa Resort – North Course || Carlsbad, Calif.
• Par: 72 || Yards: 7,538 yards
• Host: Texas
• Format: 5 count 4, 18 holes each day for 3 Rds; top 15 teams and 9 individuals advance to Rd4; end of Rd4, an individual champion crowned and the top 8 teams advance to match play.

Results Thru Rd2:

1  #1 Auburn   284-272=556 / -20

T2  #3 Texas     287-277=564 / -12

T2  #11 Vanderbilt    287-277=564 / -12

T4  #30 UCLA    280-289+569 / -7

T4  #5 Oklahoma State    295-274=569 / -7

T6  #12 Arizona     287-285=572 / -4

T6  #29 Duke    286-286=572 / -4

T6  #4 Virginia    288-284=572 / -4

T9  #10 North Carolina     287-288=575 / -1

T9  #14 Pepperdine    285-290=575 / -1

11  #16 Oklahoma    292-284=576 / E

T12  #42 San Diego    286-291=577 / +1

T12  #15 Stanford    291-286=577 / +1

T14  #56 Chattanooga     294-285=579 / +3

T14  #18 Tennessee    292-287=579 / +3

16  #2 Florida    291-290=581 / +5

17  #39 Arkansas State    295-287=582 / +6

18  #23 Georgia    292-291=583 / +7

19  #13 Arizona State    291-293=584 / +8

T20  #6 ARKANSAS    288-298=586 / +10

T20  #22 Brigham Young     296-290=586 / +10

22  #20 Texas A&M     299-289=588 / +12

23  #33 Louisville     294-296=590 / +14

24  #40 Purdue     296-295=591 / +15

25  #37 Mississippi State    298-294=592 / +16

26  #57 Memphis        301-293=594 / +18

T27  #9 Ole Miss      303-293+596 / +20

T27  #7 LSU      303-293+596 / +20

29  #28 USC     297-300=597 / +21

30  #26 Florida State     307-292=599 / +23