Around The Commonwealth
News & Notes
Compiled by CHRIS LANG
The University of Virginia men’ s golf team won the ACC Championship and reached the final match of the NCAA Championship, both program firsts.
UVA Celebrates Historic Season
UVA ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS
Sitting in a meeting room in February at the University of Virginia’ s Golf Performance Center at Birdwood Golf at Boar’ s Head Resort, Bryan Lee was confident the Cavaliers were close to a breakthrough.
“ We’ ve got such a deep team with guys up and down the lineup, that we can put a team out there and feel like we’ ve got a chance to win,” he said prior to the spring season.
The Cavaliers did everything but capture the ultimate prize in a historic 2024-25 season, one that culminated with a 4-1 loss to 12-time national champion Oklahoma State in the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California on May 28.
On the way, UVA won its first ACC Championship, scrapped its way into the eight-team NCAA match-play bracket for the third straight year, and defeated the last two national champions( Auburn and Florida) to reach its first national championship match.
“ It’ s a great group of guys,” UVA coach Bowen Sargent said.“ We are ACC Champions and the national runner-up. That’ s a heck of a year but a little bit short of our goal. Most of our guys will be back, and I’ m looking forward to next year.”
Four of the five starters from the national-title match— Lee, Ben James, Josh Duangmanee and Maxi Puregger— are eligible to return for the 2025-26 season. Paul Chang, who earned individual medalist honors at the Reno Regional, has exhausted his eligibility. James earned the lone UVA point in the loss to OSU, though Bryan Lee was still on course when the Cowboys’ Eric Lee clinched the winning third point by defeating Duangmanee 2 up.
“ They made more putts than we did, and that’ s usually what it comes down to in match play,” Sargent said.“ It’ s a game of inches at this point, and they came out on top.”
vsga. org J ULY / A UGUST 2025 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 7