BYU did not get to defend its Big 12 Match Play title in a championship match. It still left Salt Lake City with five individual wins in one round and three golfers who never lost all week.
The No. 24 Cougars swept Kansas State 5-0 Wednesday at The Country Club of Salt Lake to finish 2-0-2 in team matches and tied for fifth in the 16-team event. Kihei Akina completed a 4-0 tournament. Drake Harvey and David Liechty each finished 3-0-1.
Rain and darkness shortened the original five-round schedule to four, and Arizona State’s two pool wins plus its tie with BYU kept the Cougars out of the championship side. That is the frustrating part. BYU beat Utah, tied Iowa State, tied eventual co-champion Arizona State and then won every point available against Kansas State. It never lost a team match, but it also never had the pool margin needed to advance.
The useful part is less complicated: BYU found a lead player, two unbeaten running mates and a sixth golfer who won when coach Todd Miller finally called his number.
BYU’s complete Big 12 Match Play result
| Round | Opponent | Team result | BYU individual points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pool 1 | Utah | W, 3-2 | Akina, Harvey and Liechty won |
| Pool 2 | Iowa State | T, 2.5-2.5 | Akina and Liechty won; Harvey halved |
| Pool 3 | Arizona State | T, 2.5-2.5 | Akina and Harvey won; Liechty halved |
| Placement | Kansas State | W, 5-0 | Akina, Harvey, Liechty, Cooper Jones and Lincoln Markham won |
The final records show where BYU’s week was built:
| BYU golfer | Record | Closing result vs. Kansas State |
|---|---|---|
| Kihei Akina | 4-0-0 | Def. Oliver Toyer, 5 and 4 |
| Drake Harvey | 3-0-1 | Def. Erik Sabelström Holmberg, 4 and 3 |
| David Liechty | 3-0-1 | Def. Octavio Laurent, 5 and 4 |
| Lincoln Markham | 1-0-0 | Def. Fionn Dobbin, 2 and 1 |
| Cooper Jones | 1-3-0 | Def. Ville Virkkala, 1 up |
| Parker Bunn | 0-3-0 | Did not play Wednesday |
Match play records need one reminder. A 5-and-4 win and a 1-up win each deliver one team point. Akina, Harvey and Liechty created separation Wednesday. Jones and Markham made the sweep complete by finishing matches that reached the closing holes.
Akina turned four different rounds into four wins
Akina arrived as BYU’s obvious lead player. He had just finished ninth at 20 under in the PGA Tour’s Bank of Utah Championship, and he had shot 71 or better in all six of his college stroke-play rounds this fall.
Match play gave him a different job. There was no aggregate score to protect and no leaderboard cushion to carry from Monday into Tuesday. He had to beat the golfer beside him four times.
He did.
Akina opened with a 2-and-1 win over Utah’s Rex Wilson, recording seven birdies and never trailing. He beat Iowa State’s Owen Sawyer 4 and 3 after Sawyer briefly erased the early deficit. Against Arizona State, Boston Bracken opened with two eagles and two birdies. Akina answered with seven birdies of his own and consecutive birdies at Nos. 12-13 and 15-16 before winning 1 up.
The Kansas State finish was his widest margin. Akina beat Oliver Toyer 5 and 4 with an eagle, three birdies and no bogeys. He played 67 match-play holes across four rounds and never gave BYU less than a full point.
That record matters more than calling him BYU’s low scorer. The four wins did not arrive in one shape. He controlled Utah from the start, regained control against Iowa State, survived Arizona State’s early fireworks and removed suspense against Kansas State. Stroke play had already shown the floor. Salt Lake City showed he can change methods without changing the result.
Harvey’s comeback against Iowa State saved the unbeaten week
Harvey’s record looks almost as clean: three wins and one halve. The half point is the result worth carrying forward.
He trailed Iowa State’s Dianchao Wu by two holes with three remaining when darkness stopped Monday’s round. Play resumed Tuesday morning. Harvey won two of the last three holes and escaped with a halve.
Without that repair, BYU loses the team match 3-2. Instead, the Cougars left with one pool point and an unbeaten team record still intact.
Harvey then changed from survival to attack. He made eight birdies in a 5-and-3 win over Arizona State’s Oscar Couilleau, including two separate runs of three consecutive birdies. Wednesday, he played a bogey-free round and beat Kansas State’s Erik Sabelström Holmberg 4 and 3.
The pregame follow guide asked whether Harvey’s repair skill would carry from stroke play into a format with no overnight total to rescue. The Iowa State finish answered it directly. He had three holes, not another round, and used two of them to pull a half point out of a losing position.
That makes his 3-0-1 more informative than four easy wins would have been. BYU saw that he can close from ahead, produce birdie volume against an elite pool opponent and recover when the match is nearly gone.
Liechty made his team debut without losing
Liechty entered the week as one of three Cougars making a season team debut after playing as an individual earlier in the fall. He left with three wins and one halve.
He beat Utah’s Jan Farre 3 and 1 after taking the lead on the first hole. He entered the final four holes against Iowa State’s Drew Hensen all square, then won consecutive holes to close a 2-and-1 victory. He halved Arizona State’s Connor Williams, an All-America player who finished the week 3-0-1, before beating Kansas State’s Octavio Laurent 5 and 4.
There is no need to dress that up as a surprise star turn. Liechty did not dominate every opponent, and a halve is still a halve. The important fact is that BYU selected him for all four rounds and received a point or half point every time.
That is a selection answer. The six-player group forced Miller to sit one Cougar before each match. Liechty made himself impossible to remove because the result kept arriving, whether the round required an early lead, a late close or 18 holes against Arizona State’s steadiest player.
Markham and Jones made 5-0 possible
A sweep cannot come only from the top of the card.
Markham sat through the three pool rounds, then entered against Kansas State with fifth place on the line. He fell into an early match against Fionn Dobbin, built a three-hole lead and held on when Dobbin cut the margin to one with four holes remaining. Markham closed 2 and 1.
That is a useful tournament debut because it came without a warmup round. Markham had to read the post-rain course and match state while everyone around him already had three rounds of information.
Jones carried the opposite problem. He had played every pool round and lost all three, including a 1-up loss to Iowa State’s Ben Wheeler. Against Kansas State’s Ville Virkkala, 13 holes were tied and five of the final six were halved. Jones protected the one-hole margin and earned his first win of the week.
Akina’s 5-and-4 point made the team result likely. Jones’ 1-up point made the score 5-0. Both count the same in the table, but they say different things about the lineup. BYU had a player who could separate early and another who could carry a one-hole edge through a long stretch of tied holes.
Bunn was the odd player out Wednesday after three pool losses. That is not a permanent verdict on a golfer who counted in every round at the Tucker Invitational. It is evidence that the six-player competition is real. Markham entered and won. Jones kept his place and won. Liechty never gave the coaches a reason to sit him.
Why fifth still feels incomplete
BYU’s 2-0-2 record tied the best team-match record in the event. Arizona State and Oklahoma State also finished 3-0-1 and were declared co-champions after weather erased the fifth round.
The placement difference came from the pool table. Arizona State beat Iowa State and Utah before tying BYU, giving the Sun Devils seven pool points. BYU’s win over Utah and ties with Iowa State and Arizona State produced five. Only the pool winner advanced to the championship side.
That is the cost of the Iowa State halve. Harvey’s comeback saved one point, but BYU still left two on the course because the team match never became a win. Against Arizona State, the Cougars earned an excellent tie against the eventual co-champion. It could not recover the pool ground already lost.
The shortened format then removed another chance to climb. Tuesday afternoon’s bracket round was canceled in heavy rain, so Wednesday became the final placement session. BYU beat Kansas State 5-0 and tied Kansas for fifth rather than playing a separate fifth-place decider.
Fifth is accurate. It is also an incomplete description of the week. BYU finished behind four listed teams without losing to anyone. That is how match play works when pool points, weather and placement brackets all matter.
What BYU takes to California
The Cougars close the fall at The Preserve Golf Club Collegiate on Oct. 26-27 in Carmel, California. The format returns to stroke play, where five golfers post full rounds and four scores count toward the team total.
Match play does not settle that lineup. It does sharpen the questions.
Akina is the anchor after four wins. Harvey added a pressure comeback and two decisive victories. Liechty turned his team debut into four useful results. Markham won after waiting three rounds. Jones finally converted a close match. Bunn now has to answer the first rough event of his fall.
The strongest carryover is not the 5-0 score by itself. It is the number of ways BYU reached it. Akina and Liechty won 5 and 4. Harvey won 4 and 3. Markham finished 2 and 1. Jones held 1 up. The Cougars created blowouts and survived a one-hole finish on the same morning.
That range gives Miller a deeper card for Carmel. It also makes the fifth-place label sting a little more. BYU had enough golf to tie an eventual champion and sweep its last opponent. Two pool ties kept it from playing for the trophy.
Use the BYU men’s golf results page for the permanent tournament record, the men’s golf roster for the six-player competition and the men’s golf schedule for The Preserve.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics, Oct. 14: No. 24 men’s golf ties for fifth for the 5-0 Kansas State result, Markham, Harvey, Jones and Akina match details, final placement and next event.
- BYU Athletics, Oct. 13: BYU ties Iowa State and Arizona State for Liechty’s and Harvey’s Iowa State finishes, the Arizona State card and Wednesday placement path.
- BYU Athletics, Oct. 12: BYU defeats Utah for the rivalry result, opening match cards and the suspended Iowa State state of play.
- BYU Athletics: official schedule event 25379 for the stable event ID, completed status, date window and Salt Lake City location.
- Clippd: 2026 Big 12 Match Play for the official tournament results destination and participant list.
- Arizona State Athletics: Big 12 Match Play recap for independent confirmation of the BYU-Arizona State card, pool format, weather-shortened event and Arizona State co-championship.
- Kansas State Athletics: Wildcats fall to BYU for opponent-side confirmation of the 5-0 final and all five closing matches.
- Colorado Athletics: Big 12 Match Play final round for the complete final-round order, team records, co-champions and weather-shortened format.
- Kansas State brand colors for official purple
#512888, white and neutral gray used in the original matchup art. - BYU Sport Nuts: Big 12 Match Play follow guide, Tucker Invitational recap and Cooper Jones return analysis.
