Oklahoma State is headed to Louisville, Ky.
The top-ranked Cowboys, the reigning NCAA champions, were named the top seed for the Louisville Regional by the NCAA Division I men’s golf committee on Wednesday. Five other teams received top seeds – Wake Forest to Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Vanderbilt to Athens, Ga.; Arizona State to Stanford, Calif.; Texas to Austin, Texas; and Oklahoma to Pullman, Wash. – for the 54-hole regional tournaments, which will take place May 13-15.
In all, 81 teams (including 31 automatic qualifiers) and 45 individuals had their regional tickets officially punched live on Golf Channel.
The six regional sites are: Palouse Ridge (Pullman), UT Golf Club (Austin), Stanford Golf Course (Stanford), University of Louisville Golf Club (Louisville), University of Georgia Golf Course (Athens) and TPC Myrtle Beach (Myrtle Beach).
For another year, the committee selected teams solely based on Golfstat ranking. This method left Iowa and SMU severely under-seeded, the Hawkeyes as a No. 7 seed and Mustangs as a No. 10. Both teams had unique disqualifications this season, occurrences that had major ramifications throughout the rankings, especially around the magic number of 60.
Kansas State was the first team left out, at No. 61, followed by Coastal Carolina, which played and lost to both Iowa and SMU this season.
Another observation is the committees placing of teams. The committee states that it is sensitive to geographic proximity and travel concerns in its attempt to build six equally competitive regionals. However, many teams will have to travel large distances for their regionals.
For the second straight season, Cal will play three time zones away. This year, they’ll play in Myrtle Beach as a No. 2 seed. LSU is another team on the move again. The Tigers will play in California for the second straight season, heading to Stanford as the No. 3 seed.
The Stanford Regional has three teams from North Carolina, two from Georgia and one each from Florida, Virginia and Mississippi. The Austin Regional has three California teams. The Pullman Regional has three SEC teams.
The committee obviously tried to send teams to courses where they haven’t played before, but this strategy will benefit the host schools even more. Just two of the six regionals are hosted by non-competing schools.
The top five teams and lowest individual not on a top-5 team will advance out of each regional. The NCAA Championship will take place May 24-29 at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Here is a look at the complete fields:
MYRTLE BEACH REGIONAL
TEAMS
1. Wake Forest
2. Cal
3. Texas Tech
4. Illinois (Big Ten)
5. Florida State
6. UNLV
7. Oregon
8. Ohio State
9. Northwestern
10. Oregon State
11. Cal State-Fullerton (Big West)
12. Middle Tennessee State (C-USA)
13. VCU (A-10)
14. Robert Morris (Northeast)
INDIVIDUALS
1. Jack Lang, Davidson
2. Zack Taylor, Coastal Carolina
3. Bobby Bai, UCF
4. Kyler Tate, UCF
5. Florian Schroedl, Fairleigh Dickinson
ATHENS REGIONAL
TEAMS
1. Vanderbilt
2. Duke
3. Georgia
4. Liberty
5. Alabama
6. Tennessee
7. Campbell (Big South)
8. Kentucky
9. Nevada
10. SMU
11. Memphis (American)
12. North Carolina-Wilmington (CAA)
13. Princeton (Ivy League)
INDVIDUALS
1. Roland Massimino, Kansas State
2. Jacob Eklund, Kansas State
3. Eduardo Carrete, Jacksonville
4. Keller Harper, Furman
5. Jeremy Gandon, Kansas State
6. Billy Tom Sargent, Western Kentucky
7. Logan Sowell, College of Charleston
8. John Gough, Charlotte
9. Jordan Warnock, South Carolina Upstate
10. Will Halamandaris, Lafayette
LOUISVILLE REGIONAL
TEAMS
1. Oklahoma State (Big 12)
2. Auburn
3. North Florida (ASUN)
4. Louisville
5. Baylor
6. Arkansas State (Sun Belt)
7. Iowa State
8. West Virginia
9. Arizona
10. Mississippi State
11. New Mexico (Mountain West)
12. Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley)
13. Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley)
INDIVIDUALS
1. Jordan Hahn, Wisconsin
2. Jamie Stewart, Missouri
3. Miguel Delgado, Notre Dame
4. Trent Wallace, Illinois State
5. Jimmy Hervol, UConn
6. Logan Lowe, George Washington
7. David Rauer, Illinois State
8. Garrett Wood, Xavier
9. Duncan McNeill, Toledo
10. George Kneiser, Green Bay
STANFORD REGIONAL
TEAMS
1. Arizona State
2. Stanford (Pac-12)
3. LSU
4. North Carolina State
5. North Carolina
6. South Florida
7. Kansas
8. Virginia
9. Ole Miss
10. Georgia Southern
11. North Carolina-Greensboro (SoCon)
12. Augusta University (MEAC)
13. Denver (Summit League)
INDIVIDUALS
1. Austin Squires, Cincinnati
2. Riley Elmes, Loyola Marymount
3. James Nicholas, Yale
4. Kyler Dunkle, Utah
5. Teddy Zinsner, Yale
6. Guillaume Fanonnel, Louisiana-Monroe
7. Alex Lee, Fresno State
8. Jack Rhea, East Tennessee State
9. Shiso Go, East Tennessee State
10. Jake Vincent, Southern Utah
AUSTIN REGIONAL
TEAMS
1. Texas
2. Southern California
3. Pepperdine (West Coast)
4. Clemson
5. TCU
6. Arkansas (SEC)
7. Iowa
8. Marquette (Big East)
9. San Jose State
10. St. Mary’s
11. Sam Houston State (Southland)
12. Missouri-Kansas City (WAC)
13. Prairie View A&M (SWAC)
14. Army (Patriot League)
INDIVIDUALS
1. Blake Elliott, McNeese State
2. Angus Flanagan, Minnesota
3. Cody Burrows, Oral Roberts
4. Jake Benson, Rice
5. Jeffrey Peters, St. Peter’s
PULLMAN REGIONAL
TEAMS
1. Oklahoma
2. Georgia Tech (ACC)
3. South Carolina
4. Texas A&M
5. UCLA
6. BYU
7. Colorado State
8. Florida
9. Michigan State
10. Purdue
11. Kent State (MAC)
12. Northern Colorado (Big Sky)
13. Wright State (Horizon League)
14. Iona (MAAC)
INDIVIDUALS
1. Thomas Hutchison, UC Davis
2. Zach Smith, UC Santa Barbara
3. Daniel O’Loughlin, Colorado
4. Tim Widing, San Francisco
5. Jake Chanen, Grand Canyon
Source: Internet
