Men's Golf at NCAA West Regional This Weekend
CORVALLIS — It’s been a few years, but the Oregon State men’s golf team is back in the postseason. The Beavers will play in the NCAA West Regional, hosted by Arizona State at the Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., this Thursday through Saturday (May 17-19).
The Beavers last made the NCAAs in 2003. This is OSU’s ninth NCAA Regional appearance in the last 15 years. The Beavers have advanced to the NCAA Championships twice in that time, last in 2001.
OSU is seeded 18th out of 27 teams this weekend, and the Beavers will need to finish in the top 10 to move on to the NCAA Championships, which is being hosted by Virginia Commonwealth at Golden Horseshoe Golf Course in Williamsburg, Va., on May 30-June 2.
The 27 teams headed to Tempe, in order of seeding, are: Stanford, UCLA, UNLV, USC, East Tennessee State, Brigham Young, Arizona State, Wake Forest, Arizona, UC Irvine, South Carolina, Washington, Vanderbilt, Augusta State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, New Mexico, Oregon State, Colorado State, Oregon, California, Nevada, Denver, Pennsylvania, Detroit, Bucknell and Monmouth.
"It’s our first appearance since 2003, so we are really looking forward to a chance to compete and to play our way into the NCAA Championships," said sixth-year head coach . "It doesn’t matter where we are seeded. We are going to have an opportunity to play and that is all we can ask for. We’ve been preparing at Trysting Tree (OSU’s home venue) and the course here is in great shape. We are focusing on fairways and hitting greens right now. The speed of the greens here are similar to what we’ll see at regionals."
Karsten Golf Course is a par-72, 7,057-yard course. Eighteen holes will be played each day. Each team will field five players, with the top four scores counting each round.
Live scoring will be available at golfstat.com.
OSU’s lineup in Tempe will be junior (Langley, B.C./Langley Secondary/UTEP), junior (Portland, Ore./David Douglas HS), freshman (Bogota, Colombia/Gimnasio Los Caobos), senior (Williams Lake, B.C./Columneetza Secondary) and sophomore (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview HS).
"The competition within the team from top to bottom has been strong," Watts said. "The consistency we have had with our top three golfers has also made a huge difference."
Gillis and Williams tuned up for the NCAA Regionals by playing very well at a U.S. Open local qualifying round at Langdon Farms Golf Club in Aurora, Ore., on May 9. Gillis won the qualifier with a 67 and Williams shot a 70 to tie for fifth. Both will advance to a sectional qualifier in June.
Johnson, meanwhile, won the Men’s Independent Division of the 21st PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship last weekend (May 11-13). He shot a 6-under-par 210 at the event, held at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and finished 12 strokes better than the runner-up.
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