Gerrod Chadwell & Co. headed to third straight NCAA Championships

Last weekend in the Bryan Regional, Texas A&M survived and advanced as the Maroon & White rallied to finish fifth and qualify for the 2024 NCAA Championships. On Tuesday, Gerrod Chadwell joined TexAgs Radio to recap the regional and look ahead to Carlsbad, California.

Key notes from Gerrod Chadwell interview

• Last Wednesday was crazy. You’re at home, and you’re two shots out of the lead. Within three holes, we were fighting to make it. It was nerve-wracking, but we’ve got a great bunch.
   
• For whatever reason, our young ladies don’t like the starting hole at Traditions. Once everybody went through, I looked at my phone and realized we needed to hop into action. Adela Cernousek had made a mess of the second hole, so I was trying to settle her down. She made a couple of birdies on the front nine, and then she birdied like four out of five. That was huge.
   
• Fast forward, I gave Cernousek a hug after she birdied No. 18, and I said, “If you don’t have that big back nine, we might not have made it.” She had no idea. It was just one shot at a time. It was really cool to see her getting the momentum going for herself.
   
• Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio responded, but everybody had a great back nine. We shot six-under as a team on the back. She wanted to play better, but to get it going for herself as a freshman was huge. As big as Cernousek’s comeback was, we still needed three scores to complete that team score. I’m just proud of all of them.
   
• I’m in Houston right now with Cernousek and Zoe Slaughter. They’re trying to qualify for the US Open. We’ll fly out later this week, and the official practice round is on Thursday. We’ll play 54 holes to get into the top 15, and then those teams will play 18 holes to get into the top eight for match play.
   
• We talked a couple of times about how great it would be to play in front of our fans, and it was. Still, it came with some added pressure. I’m thankful for everybody who came out to support us because you could feel it on the back nine. I’m forever thankful for that.