Cowboy Golf: Oklahoma State Advances to NCAA Semifinals With Match-Play Win Against Florida

Things started to get a little interesting late, but the Cowboys are moving on in match play at the NCAA Championships.

Oklahoma State beat Florida 3-2 in the quarterfinal round at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California. The Pokes advance to face top-seeded Auburn in Tuesday evening’s semifinals.

Junior Eric Lee got the Cowboys on the board first, taking his match against Luke Poulter 6&4. It wasn’t even that Poulter was having a rough round, Lee just caught fire.

The Cowboy bogeyed the fourth hole, falling behind in the match, but he birdied holes six, eight and nine to flip the script and go 2-up. Then Lee eagled the 10th to go 3-up and holed out a beaut of a chip shot to go 4-up through 12.

Hooped it!

📺 — @GolfChannel #GoPokes | #golfschool pic.twitter.com/vRpmpUFHv6

— OSU Cowboy Golf (@OSUCowboyGolf) June 2, 2026

He’d birdie the 13th, as well, before Poulter bogeyed 14 to drop the match.

The sailing wasn’t quite as smooth elsewhere.

Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson dropped his match against Parker Sands 3&2, meaning it was going to come down to two of Ethan Fang, Preston Stout and Gaven Lane to push the Pokes across the line.

Fang went to an extra hole against Zack Swanwick, where the Gator birdied the playoff hole to win the match.

Lane trailed Jack Turner by a hole through eight, but three straight birdies on nine, 10 and 11 moved him to 2-up. That started a bit of a back-and-forth, as Lane lost hole 12, won hole 13, lost hole 14 and won hole 15 to maintain his 2-up lead in entertaining fashion. The pair would tie the next two holes, closing the match.

Newly crowned individual national champ Preston Stout matched up with Matthew Kress. Stout jumped out to an early lead, winning the first two holes, but Kress would tie the match at the 10th hole, setting up for a tight finish.

Stout pulled back ahead with a birdie on the 11th, a lead he increased to 2-up after birdieing 15. Kress won the next hole, but Stout was able to maintain his lead through the next two.

Update the board! #GoPokes | #golfschool pic.twitter.com/5d3N2toMC6

— OSU Cowboy Golf (@OSUCowboyGolf) June 2, 2026

The Cowboys will be paired up against a squad that has been seeing the course well this weekend in the semis. Auburn earned the top seed in the stroke-play portion of the tournament, finishing three strokes ahead of the field and 15 strokes ahead of the Cowboys.

The Tigers beat Stanford 3.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals. Auburn is led by Jackson Koivun, who just won his second Haskins Award, and he’ll match up with the reigning national champ.

OSU-Auburn Semifinal Matchups
Eric Lee-Logan Reilly
Preston Stout-Jackson Koivun
Gaven Lane-Jake Albert
Ethan Fang-Josiah Gilbert
Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson-Cayden Pope

The other semifinal will see UCLA play Arizona. Shoutout to the Big 12 for having half of the semifinalists.