May 22, 2010
2009 NCAA San Diego Regional Final Results in PDF Format
The San Diego State men's golf team saw its 2009-10 campaign come to an end Saturday with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA San Diego Regional in Santee, Calif. The Aztecs posted a final round 301 to complete the 54-hole tournament tied with UC Irvine at 35-over 899. Top-ranked Oregon easily won the team title by 10 strokes over Augusta State with a three-day total of 6-over 870 at the par-72, 7,360-yard Carlton Oaks Golf Club.
Cal State Northridge's Nick Delio came away with medalist honors with a 3-under 213, including a final round 73, to beat Oregon's Daniel Miernicki by one stroke. With the win, Delio, who was seeded fourth out of the 10 individuals competing in San Diego, became his school's first golfer to qualify for the NCAA championships on the Division I level. California, Tennessee and UNLV will join Oregon and Augusta State at nationals at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn., June 1-6, after placing in the top five at the San Diego regional.
After shaving 10 strokes off its first-round score on Friday, the Aztecs were unable to keep their momentum, posting a 301, which was good for only ninth-best out of the 13 teams in the final 18 holes. Junior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) was SDSU's top finisher at regionals for the second year in a row, utilizing a final-round 72, including four birdies over a six-hole span, to move from 28th place into a tie for 14th at 5-over 221. The 14th-place performance is Carlsson's highest career finish at NCAA regionals, beating his previous best of 18th a year ago.
Aztec freshman Tom Berry (New Haw, England) was at 2-over through the first nine holes, but triple bogeyed the par-4 sixth hole and ended up with a final-round 5-over 77, dropping him from a tie for 18th into a tie for 33rd with a 225. Sophomores Andrew Cooley (New Haw, England) and J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) both finished out the event with 76s to tie for 45th and 49th place, respectively. Classmate Colin Featherstone (Fallbrook, Calif.) rounded out his NCAA debut with an 80 to tie for 68th place in the 75-golfer field.
Although San Diego State was unable to qualify for nationals, the team did record seven top-five finishes, including two tournament victories at the Turtle Bay Resort Collegiate Invitational and the Barona Collegiate Cup, in 2009-10. Four different SDSU players won or shared an individual event title, despite the fact that the Aztecs have only two upperclassmen on their roster.
2010 NCAA San Diego Men's Golf Regional
Santee, Calif.
Carlton Oaks Golf Club - Par 72, 7,360 yards
Final Results (Through 54 Holes)
Team Scoring
1 Oregon 294-290-286-870 (+6) 2 Augusta State 303-286-291-880 (+16) 3 California 294-292-300-886 (+22) Tennessee 294-296-296-886 (+22) UNLV 294-294-298-886 (+22) 6 UCF 295-301-297-893 (+29) 7 New Mexico St. 296-302-297-895 (+31) 8 San Diego State 304-294-301-899 (+35) UC Irvine 303-297-299-899 (+35) 10 Missouri 300-302-306-908 (+44) Arizona 307-297-304-908 (+44) 12 Chattanooga 304-299-309-912 (+48) 13 Oral Roberts 304-302-317-923 (+59)
Individuals (Top 5 Individuals out of 75)1 Nick Delio, CS Northridge 71-69-73-213 (-3) 2 Daniel Miernicki, Oregon 72-69-73-214 (-2) 3 Isaiah Telles, Oregon 75-73-67-215 (-1) Eddie Olson, UNLV 68-73-74-215 (-1) 5 Three tied 216 (E)
San Diego State T14 Johan Carlsson 75 -74-72-221 (+5) T33 Tom Berry 76-72-77-225 (+9) T45 Andrew Cooley 78-73-76-227 (+11) T49 J.J. Spaun 77-75-76-228 (+12) T68 Colin Featherstone 76-81-80-237 (+21)
2010 NCAA San Diego Men's Golf Regional - Carlton Oaks Golf Club - Round 3 Quotes
San Diego State Head Coach Ryan Donovan
On the team's eighth-place finish:
"It was a disappointing week, really. I think that first round put us back a little bit and we just could never bounce back on such a great and tough golf course. We didn't stick to our game plan, which was the most frustrating thing about the week. We had a plan this week and for some reason, we didn't execute. (It's) back to the drawing board on Monday. Luckily, everyone's coming back (next year), so we have to take the positives."
On the season:
"Overall, it's always disappointing, because we expected to be at the national championships with this group. But we did win twice this year and this was a group that didn't win any last year, so that's a positive. Tom Berry being a freshman contributed and did what we expected him to do, which was nice. Having our recruiting class come in next year and nobody leaving - there's a lot of positives for our program."
San Diego State sophomore J.J. Spaun:
On his thoughts for today's round:
"It was same as the last two rounds, just couldn't really get anything going. (I) struggled out there and it's a little disappointing, but that's how things go."
On why this course is so hard to play:
"The conditions are really tough - it's really windy and demands a lot of good shots into these small greens. You have to make putts and it's hard to when you're not hitting it close enough."
On if it's a growing experience for the team:
"We're looking at this on the positive side - it gets more experience for us. All we can do is just learn from it and come back next year and just improve and make it there again."
Cal State Northridge's Nick Delio
On winning the tournament:
"First of all, it's just an honor to qualify (for NCAA regionals) because there are only 60 individuals in the whole nation that get to qualify, so I'm just very thankful. Winning (the regional) is just surreal - this is a little crazy - it's just surreal."
On if this golf course just fits his game:
"The course is really long. You can miss a few shots here and there, but you need to be pretty sharp overall. I putted really well this week and that helped a lot."
On if he was nervous in the final round:
"I was pretty nervous throughout the day. It was so hard to judge the distance for all of these shots, because the wind was swirling all day. The first two days it was pretty consistent - blowing (one) way - but today it was really swirling around, so it made it a lot more challenging."