Men's Golf Earns Bid to West Regional for NCAA Golf Championship
May 4, 2009
CORVALLIS, Ore. - For the third consecutive year, the Oregon State men’s golf team is headed to the NCAA Men's Golf Championship as the Beavers were selected to play in the West Regional, held at the Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif., hosted by the University of San Francisco, May 14-16.
The West Regional is one of six regionals taking place around the country. Thirteen teams and 10 individuals will be competing at three of the regional sites while at the other three there will be 14 teams and 5 individuals competing.
The low five teams and the low individuals from each regional will advance to the NCAA Finals, which will be held Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, May 26-30, hosted by the University of Toledo.
“The guys finished off the season well and put themselves in a position to go to the post-season again,” Oregon State men’s golf head coach Brian Watts said. “We’re excited about the opportunity.”
The Beavers are coming off a fifth place finish at the Pac-10 Championships last week, their best finish since 2002. They are seeded 11th going into regional play and join three other Pac-10 teams in USC, Arizona State, and Oregon at the Merced Club.
“Being the 11th seed means nothing at this time of the year,” Watts said. “Everybody starts back at square one. We just competed at the Pac-10 Championships and we’re not going to see anything tougher than that. If you want to be the best you have to compete against the best. We’re looking at it as another opportunity to compete against some of the best players and teams in the country.”
The Beavers finished 16th at the NCAA West Regional in 2008 and missed out on a trip to nationals when they tied for ninth and lost in a playoff against East Tennessee State and Wake Forest in 2007.
“Everything I’ve heard about the Merced Club is that it’s a lot like the Olympic club which we played at this fall at San Francisco’s tournament,” Watts said. “As far as preparation this week, we’re going to be out at Illahe Country Club, Corvallis Country Club or Spring Hill Country Club where they have tight fairways and small greens. We’re just going to try to play and practice on courses as much as we can that simulates the conditions we’re going to see at Lake Merced.”
Junior Paul Peterson leads the Beavers into the regional with a team low 71.87 scoring average this year. He has never finished outside the Top-25 this season and has five top-10 finishes.
Listed below are the teams and individuals selected to participate at Lake Merced Golf Club. Teams winning automatic qualification are designated by their conferences in parentheses.
Lake Merced Golf Club, Daly City, California Hosted by the University of San Francisco
Teams (seeded in the following order):
1. Southern California
2. Texas A&M
3. Arizona State
4. San Diego State
5. UC Davis (Big West Conference)
6. Oregon
7. New Mexico
8. Colorado
9. UC Irvine
10. Kansas State
11. Oregon State
12. San Diego
13. San Francisco (West Coast Conference)
Individuals:
1. Grant Doverspike, Fresno State
2. Brady Johnson, Brigham Young
3. Nick Delio, Cal State Northridge
4. Scott Smith, Nevada
5. Geoff Gonzalez, Cal Poly
6. Robbie Fillmore, Brigham Young
7. Mark Hubbard, San Jose State
8. Kevin Tucker, Washington State
9. Bhavik Patel, Fresno State
10. Greg Moss, Loyola Marymount
UCLA won the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships last year being led by Kevin Chappell who also claimed the individual trophy.
