It took the Colorado men’s golf team 21 years to end an NCAA championship bid drought with a berth in 2023.

It took only two years for the Buffaloes to get back.

The Buffs saved their best for last at the NCAA Northwest Regional on Wednesday, putting together their top effort of the three-round tournament to secure the program’s second NCAA championship berth in three seasons by finishing third at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.

The Buffs, seeded sixth at the regional, will begin play at the NCAA finals May 23 in Carlsbad, Calif. It will be CU’s sixth appearance in the national final since the regional format was adopted in 1989. CU posted a team score of 5-under-par for Wednesday’s final round, the Buffs’ best mark of the regional. Junior Hunter Swanson posted his second consecutive sub-par round in the finale, finishing at 2-under 70 to finish seventh overall. Swanson finished at 5-under for the tournament, suffering only three bogeys while posting nine birdies over the final 36 holes.

“The guys did a really nice job the first couple of days, really not playing their best but putting themselves in position,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “And then to come out (Wednesday) and play how they know how to play. Confident, composed, smart. We knew if the guys did that, they’d get it done. That’s what happened.”

After Dylan McDermott set the tone in the opening round, with Swanson following with a strong second round, on Wednesday it was Justin Biwer who posted the top mark for the Buffs, finishing the third round with a 5-under 67. Biwer finished in a tie for 12th overall at 2-under, while McDermott finished in a tie for 33rd.“They’re two very clutch players,” Edwards said of Swanson and Biwer. “They’ve played a lot of big-time golf. Justin in particular was struggling coming into the start of the tournament. Didn’t have the best practice round. And still found a way to compete. And then he was in a great position (Wednesday) and played wonderfully all day.”

Ranked 32nd nationally, CU finished ahead of three higher-ranked teams, outpacing No. 29/fourth-place South Florida by two strokes and finishing four strokes ahead of No. 20 South Carolina, which claimed the final championship berth by finishing fifth.

Florida won the team title with a three-round score of 28-under, with Arizona State finishing three strokes back.

Utah’s Braxton Watts used an incredible surge to win the individual regional title, posting two straight rounds of 6-under after finishing even in the opening round.

As the top finisher from a team not the among automatic qualifiers in the top five of the team standings, Watts also receives the lone at-large bid to the national championship out of the Northwest Regional.