Men's Golf Travels To NCAA Regionals
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State men’s golf team travels this week to Bremerton, Wash. to compete in the NCAA Division I West Regional hosted by the University of Washington.
The Event: The tournament runs Thursday through Saturday, May 15-17 and consists of a 54-hole format that includes one round of 18-holes to be played each day on the par-72, 7,111 Olympic Course at Golf Mountain.
The Field: The 27-team field is as follows in order of seed: No. 1 USC, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Florida State, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Clemson, No. 6 UNLV, No. 7 North Carolina, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 9 Central Florida, No. 10 Arizona State, No. 11 San Diego State, No. 12 Texas, No. 13 LSU, No. 14 Oregon State, No. 15 Pepperdine, No. 16
Oregon, No. 17 California, No. 18 St. Mary’s, No. 19 Kentucky, No. 20 Wisconsin, No. 21 Washington, No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 23 Kansas State, No. 24 San Diego, No. 25 Denver, No. 26 Navy, No. 27 Columbia.
The individuals are Troy Merritt of Boise State, Brian Locke of Loyola Marymount, Tarquin MacManus of Arizona, Jason D’Amore of Loyola Marymount, Nathan Stamey of North Carolina-Greensboro and Jimmy Lytle of Elon.
The Stakes: The 27 teams are playing for a chance to move on to the NCAA Division I National Championships May 28-31. The national championship will be held at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex-The Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Indiana hosted by Purdue University. The top-10 teams and the top-2 individuals that are not on a top-10 team advances.
OSU Lineup: Oregon State will be sending senior James Allenby, sophomore Diego Velasquez, junior Alex Williams, senior Vincent Johnson, and sophomore Paul Peterson.
Last Year’s West Regional: The Beavers lost in a playoff tiebreaker and missed out on advancing to the national championships despite finishing tied for ninth place last year. They finished 25-under par as a team with an 839. Allenby finished tied for 10th at 12-under last year.
Last OSU Event: The Beavers finished eighth in their last event at the Pacific-10 Men’s Golf Championships. They finished with a four round total of 1461. Allenby finished in the top-10 for the sixth time of the season at the Pac-10’s when he tied for eighth at 1-over.
Golfstat Statistics: Fans can follow the action with live hole-by-hole scoring at GolfStat.com.
Head Coach Brian Watts: Brian Watts is in his seventh year as men’s head coach but his 11th overall with the program. He was an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s teams from 1995-97 and 1999-01. He led the Beavers to a third-place finish at the 2002 Pac-10 Championships.
James Allenby (2007-2008: 70.97 average, Low 67, 30 rounds) – A senior from Langley, B.C. (Langley Secondary/UTEP) ... Finished 3rd to start the season at the Giusina Memorial Classic (-10 206) ... Won his first individual event at the Husky Invitational (-6 138) ... Finished 15th at the Alister Mackenzie Invitational (-5 208) ... Finished fifth at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge (+2 218) ... He has finished in the top 20 in every tournament this season with two top 5 finishes ... He is on pace to set the single season and career scoring average records at OSU ... Has six top-10 finishes this year.
Diego Velasquez (2007-2008: 72.56 average, Low 66, 27 rounds) – A sophomore from Bogota, Columbia (Gimnasio Los Caobos) ... He finished fifth (+1 145) at the Husky Invitational and twelfth (-6 207) at the Alister Mackenzie Invitational ... He has OSU’s lowest round score for the year (66) ... Finished tied for 17th at the UH-Hilo Invitational (-3 207) ... He tied for 16th at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic (-2 208) ... Tied for 17th at the U.S. Intercollegiate (+5 215) ... Tied for 11th at the Pac-10 Championships (+2 286).
Alex Williams (2007-2008: 73.00 average, Low 67, 32 rounds) – A junior from Vancouver, Wash. (Skyview HS)... He is the only golfer to have played in all 11 events this year ... Has four top-20 finishes this year ... Finished tied for 14 that the Husky Invitational (+4 148) ... Finished tied for 20th at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational (-3 210) ... Tied for 13th at the UH-Hilo Invitational (-4 206) ... Recorded his first ever collegiate individual win at the NW Winter Shootout (+1 143),
Vincent Johnson (2007-2008: 73.69 average, Low 67, 29 rounds) – A senior from Portland, Ore (David Douglas HS... Played in 10 tournaments this year ... He finished second overall at the Giusina Memorial Classic (-10 205) ... Finished tied for fourth at the NW Winter Shootout (+3 145) ... Tied for fifth at the Duck Invitational (+3 219) ... Finished third at the 22nd PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship (+2 218) ... He has four top-10 finishes this season.
Paul Peterson (2007-2008: 74.44 average, Low 67, 27 rounds) – A sophomore from Salem, Ore. (Sprague HS)... Has played in nine tournament events this year ... Tied for 18th at the Guistina Memorial Classic (E 216) ... Tied for fourth at the NW Winter Shootout (+3 145) ... Had his best performance at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic where he finished tied for second (-7 203).
