O’Rear is believed to be the first Salado player to sign an NCAA Division I letter of intent for men’s golf when he committed to Baylor University during the early signing period Wednesday.
The two-time defending 2A state champion also considered Texas Christian and Oklahoma but opted to play for the Bears, who own a string of 11 consecutive NCAA regional tournament appearances.
“I’ve just always liked Baylor. I like Coach (Greg Priest) and the guys, and I think it’s a good fit,” said O’Rear, who plans to major in sports marketing. “I thought about OU and TCU, but Baylor just worked out. I won’t be too far home and can come home when I need to.”
O’Rear is one of five players along with Ricky Preston, David Harvell, Robert Schenkel and David Preston to have won state titles at Salado, and O’Rear and David Preston are the only two-time winners among that group.
With the pressure that goes with signing lifted from his shoulders, O’Rear will try for a third crown this spring.
“It was probably my freshman year when I started thinking that I wanted to play in college and started getting serious about it,” he said. “Now this definitely takes some pressure off for this spring. Now I can just go out there and play.”
But O’Rear’s impressive high school career isn’t confined to the University Interscholastic League season. He played in the 2007 U.S. Amateur as the third-youngest player in the field at Olympic Club in San Francisco.
This fall, he has won two individual titles out of three high school tournaments, and he was second at the Sooner Junior Invitational and ninth at the Texas Cup. Golfweek magazine ranks him as the No. 1 player in Texas from the class of 2009 and the No. 36 player in the country.
But even with his previous record, O’Rear doesn’t plan on slowing down just yet.
“The guys that play in college are really good so I’m going to have to get better,” he said. “But I hope to be able to go in and play next year.”
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
