May 16, 2007
SAN DIEGO -
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SDSU Men's Golf Swings into NCAA Regional Action This Week
- For the ninth straight year and the 12th time in program history, the San Diego State men's golf team has earned an invitation to the NCAA regional tournament. The Aztecs are seeded 16th out of 27 teams in the West Regional, which will be contested May 17-19, at Arizona State's 7,057-yard, par-72 Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.
SDSU is among 81 NCAA Division I schools selected to play in one of three regional tournaments. The other regionals will take place concurrently in Sugar Grove, Ill., (Central) and Alpharetta, Ga., (East) and will also include 27 teams and six individual qualifiers each.
The tournament consists of 54 holes over a three-day period with 18 holes played each day. The top 10 teams and two individuals not on advancing teams will move on from each regional to the championship finals.
SDSU will be paired with Oregon State and Mountain West Conference rival New Mexico during the first two rounds. The teams will begin on the first tee at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and will start at the 10th tee at 11:42 a.m. on Friday. Saturday's final round tee times will be based on the team standings through the first 36 holes. A live scoring link will be available under the events calendar on the home page of GoAztecs.com.
SDSU is looking to return to the national championships for the 19th time in school history and the fourth time since the regional format began in 1989. The Scarlet and Black has advanced to the championship series three time (1999, 2003 and 2005) since the regional format made its debut.
The 2007 NCAA championships will be held May 30-June 2 at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va.
This Week's Lineup
- Head coach Ryan Donovan will utilize the same starting five for the second straight tournment at the NCAA West Regional this week. Juniors Aaron Goldberg and Jamie Puterbaugh have played in all 12 events for SDSU during the 2006-07 campaign, while senior Cory Segall and sophomore Adam Porzak will be making their sixth appearances this spring. Also making the trip is junior Chad Moscovic, who competed in his first MWC tournament last month.
Goldberg and Segall are the only two golfers in the group with regional playing experience. At the 2006 NCAA West Regional championships in Tucson, Ariz., Goldberg tied for 46th out of 141 playerst, while Segall finished in a tie for 106th.
Familiar Territory
- San Diego State is returning to Karsten Golf Course for the second time this season. The Aztecs placed 12th out of 15 teams last month at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational (April 13-15), finishing with an 878 on the par-72, 7,037-yard course. Aaron Goldberg paced SDSU at the 54-hole event, shooting a 9-under 207, which was good for fourth place.
The Competition
- Of the 27 teams in the West Regional, five are from the Mountain West Conference, including third-seeded UNLV, No. 6 Brigham Young, No. 16 SDSU, No. 17 New Mexico, and No. 19 Colorado State. Another MWC school, Utah, is also represented with one of the six individual spots.
Besides the MWC teams, SDSU will face competition from 13 different conferences with the most coming from the Pac-10 (nine teams).
The Aztecs have played 16 of the 26 other teams in the West Regional field during the 2006-07 season and hold winning or even head-to-head records against eight of them.
Against the 80 total schools in the three regionals, SDSU is 26-36 this season.
Individually, the NCAA West Regional boasts the top three ranked players in the country in USC's Jamie Lovemark, Niklas Lemke of Arizona State and East Tennessee State's Rhys Davies, according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
Last Time Out: MWC Championships
- Adam Porzak fell short in his quest to capture the individual title during the final round of the Mountain West Conference men's golf championships in Tucson, Ariz. Porzak carded the Aztecs' low score for the tournament with a collegiate-best 6-under-par 207, tying TCU's Robby Ormand for the top spot after carding an even-par 71 over the last 18 holes. However, the Poway High alumnus was unable to recover from an errant tee shot on the first playoff hole as Ormand sank a six-foot par putt to walk away with medalist honors. Despite the bad break, Porzak posted SDSU's best-ever individual conference championship score en route to his highest finish as a collegian.
After completing the second day in 11th place, Aaron Goldberg climbed back into contention during the final round with four birdies on the front nine. However, the Aztec junior was unable to generate any momentum the rest of the way, recording a bogey at No. 11 en route to a share of sixth place. Still, Goldberg managed his ninth top-10 finish of the season after carding a team-low 69 over the final 18 holes for a combined 2-under 211.
Meanwhile, Cory Segall saved his best round for last, firing an even-par 71 to tie for the 26th spot at 8-over 221.
As a team, the Aztecs finished in fifth place for the tournament after shooting an 8-over-par 292 on Saturday for a combined 11-over 863. Second-round leader Brigham Young (-6) briefly relinquished its hold on first place during the final round, but recovered in time to claim the team title by just one stroke over runner-up UNLV (-5) on the 7,136-yard, par-71 Catalina Course at the Omni Tucson National Resort
SDSU in the NCAA Regionals
- Since the NCAA regional tournaments began in 1989, SDSU has received a bid 12 times, including nine straight from 1999 to 2007.
The Aztecs have finished in the top 10 on three occasions with their best performance coming in 1999, when the team placed fifth with an 875. The lowest team score in regional competition for SDSU came in 2005 when it posted an 860 en route to a seventh-place tie at Stanford Golf Course.
That same season, Gilberto Rodriguez recorded the best individual finish by an Aztec when he tied for sixth after carding an even-par 210, which is lowest 54-hole total at a regional in school history. Magnus Carlsson shot a 6-under 66 in 1999, which is the best round ever by an SDSU golfer at an NCAA regional.
2006 NCAA West Regionals: A Look Back
- San Diego State saw its 2005-06 season come to a disappointing end after finishing in a tie for 17th place out of 27 teams at the NCAA West Regional in Tucson, Ariz. Although the Aztecs posted the 10th-best score during the third and final round at the Omni Tucson National Golf Club, it wasn't enough as the scarlet and black came up short in its quest for a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships.
After failing to break par in the first two rounds, SDSU shot 5-under-par over the final 18 holes to complete the 54-hole tournament at 2-under-par. The Aztecs got to 7-under-par, within one shot of 12th place at one point on the back nine, but were unable to muster their way into the top 10.
Arizona and Florida shared the team title at 37-under-par, 13 shots clear of the rest of the field, while Florida's Billy Horschel and Nevada's Casey Watabu finished tied atop the individual leaderboard at 13-under-par. San Diego State was led by David Palm and Aaron Goldberg as each carded a 2-under 214 to finish in a tie for 46th place out of 141 golfers.
Palm tallied five birdies to go along with three bogeys during third-round action on the way to his second consecutive score of 2-under-par 70. Goldberg also recorded his second sub-par round on the final day of the tournament, firing a 1-under 71.
Senior Andrew Scott, meanwhile, played a bogey-free round en route to a team-best 4-under-par 68. Scott drained birdies on three of the four par-5 holes and finished with an even-par 216 for the championship.
Rounding out the scoring for the Aztecs was Cory Segall whose third-round total was good enough to count for the second straight day. Segall birdied the 18th hole to finish with a 2-over-par 74.