Ashland’s Tyler Sabo Competes in DI Men’s Golf Championship

Joe Lyons • June 2, 2024

Tyler Sabo stood on the par three 8th hole, two holes down in match play, to the 15th ranked amateur golfer in the world, William Moll. The Ohio State Buckeyes, who entered the DI Men’s Championship as the 32nd ranked team in the nation finished 7th in stroke play, found themselves playing No. 2 seed Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals.

After Moll, a graduate student, landed his shot within a couple feet of the hole, the redshirt freshman from Ashland, Ohio, one-upped his opponent spinning his ball back into the cup for a hole-in-one.

“The hole-in-one was probably the most timely shot I’ve ever hit in my golf career,” Sabo said, “there was no better feeling than to see that go in with my parents there watching and my coach by my side to celebrate.”

Sabo’s parents rarely miss any of his matches and they surely were not going to miss their son playing in the national championship despite having to travel to Carlsbad, California.

It’s a twenty-seven-hour day for us and we got up at 2am Ohio time,” said Diane Sabo via text message at a little after 9pm EDT on Tuesday(the night before the Buckeyes would begin play at the Omni La Costa North Course). “We have to park and get shuttled to the 10th hole,” she added, “which is the furthest point away.”

Tyler Sabo with parents Diane and Mark Sabo

Sabo grabbed the lead in his match on the 13th hole and took some pressure off teammate, Senior Adam Wallin. Wallin then defeated 2022 NCAA Men’s Individual Champion Gordon Sargent in 19 holes to propel Ohio State to a 3-1-1 victory.

The win would send the Buckeyes into the semifinals to play the No. 1 ranked team in college golf, the Auburn Tigers. The Tigers shot 20 under par nine days earlier to a earn a come from behind win on the last day of the Baton Rouge Regional in Louisiana.

With less than a few hours to celebrate, Sabo prepared mentally to take on his next opponent, Josiah Gilbert. Sabo came into the match ranked around 2100 spots below Gilbert in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

“Match play is totally different than stroke play,” Sabo added. Neal Shipley and Maxwell Moldovan had prepared him for his first opponent(Moll) the night before. Sabo felt since he had beaten both Shipley and Moldovan that he was ready to take on any opponent. “Having those two as competitors has prepared me for moments like that,” offered Sabo.

He pulled off a huge upset over the freshman Gilbert(1UP) though his Buckeyes fell short of beating the Tigers, 3-2. Ohio State finished 3rd out of 30 teams at the championship.

Florida Southern Hall of Fame golfer and Ashland High School golf legend, Steve Paramore, was excited about Sabo’s performance. “I was impressed with his ability to perform when the lights came on while he was on the biggest stage,” Paramore said, “he responded in the biggest moments and took on some great players.”

The 2022 First Team All-Ohio golfer from Ashland High School wrapped up his season for the Buckeyes in California but has a busy summer ahead after returning home to decompress.

Sabo is the 2nd alternate after a one-hole playoff in April at the US Open local qualifier at Brookside Golf & Country Club in Columbus. He would like to return to the final qualifier where he played just two years ago. Shipley has already qualified for the US Open.

The future is bright, and Sabo proved he belongs in the same sentence with the best golfers in college. None of us will be surprised to see this Buckeye own the course his next three years wearing scarlet and gray. We will surely be ready when he tees off on his next par 3 for the four words every golfer dreams of hearing, “it’s in the hole.”

Tyler Sabo with his Caddie, Aidan Chandler, at the US Open local qualifier