May 7, 2012
SAN DIEGO - The Mountain West Conference champion and 14th-ranked San Diego State men's golf team will head to Stanford for the 2012 NCAA Regional, slated for May 17-19, at the Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Committee announced Monday evening. The Aztecs garnered a No. 3 seed for their 14th consecutive NCAA regional bid and their 17th overall since the field expanded to include regional competition in 1989.
"We're very excited to head to Stanford next week," said ninth-year SDSU head coach Ryan Donovan. "It's a course that we play on every year and is the only one out of this year's regional sites that we have seen before. It will be an easy trip to make logistically and the guys will know what to expect."
San Diego State snagged one of the 28 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament as a result of winning its' second consecutive MW crown this past Sunday at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Resort in Tucson, Ariz.. Overall, 81 NCAA Division I schools garnered invitations to play in one of the six regional events that will also be played concurrently in Greensboro, N.C. (UNCG), Athens, Ga. (Georgia), Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan), Norman, Okla. (Oklahoma) and Bowling Green, Ky. (Western Kentucky).
Joining the Aztecs in the Bay Area next week will be 12 other teams, including six foes ranked in the top 40, and 10 individual competitors (75 golfers overall). SDSU has already played the par-70, 6,727-yard Stanford Golf Course earlier this season, placing sixth at the U.S. Intercollegiate, March 30-April 1. The squad has competed at Stanford in NCAA regional play once previously, with that coming in 2005 when it placed seventh to advance to the national championships. Overall, this is the 14th time SDSU has played an NCAA regional in the Pacific time zone, including 10 in a row.
The top five teams and the low individual not on an advancing team from each of the six regionals will move on to the national championships, slated for May 29-June 3, at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The Aztecs have qualified for nationals 26 times in school history, including five times (1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011) since the regional format made its debut. SDSU won an NCAA regional for the first time in program history a year ago, finishing first by seven strokes as a No. 2 seed also at OMNI Tucson National.
The Aztecs were one of five Mountain West schools to earn a regional berth in 2012 with the others being UNLV (No. 2 seed - Greensboro, N.C.), New Mexico (No. 3 - Athens, Ga.), TCU (No. 8 - Ann Arbor, Mich) and Colorado State (No. 11 - Bowling Green, Ky.).
SDSU has won five tournaments this season, tying for fourth nationally behind only No. 1 Texas (7), No. 6 Oregon (7) and No. 11 Arkansas (6). Besides the MWC championships, the Aztecs made national headlines by finishing first at four consecutive events earlier this spring at the North Ranch Intercollegiate, The Farms Invitational, the National Invitational Tournament and the Barona Collegiate Cup. In all, the program has 10 top-five finishes in 12 total events thus far in 2011-12.
Squads will play 18 holes (54 total) each of the three days with a practice round on Wednesday, May 16. The Aztecs will be paired with California and Stanford for Thursday's first round beginning from the first hole at 8 a.m. PT. Live hole-by-hole stats will be available on golfstat.com, as well as goaztecs.com for all three rounds.
NCAA Regional - May 17-19, 2012
Stanford Golf Course (Par 70, 6,727 yards)
Stanford, Calif.
Host: Stanford
Teams seeded in the following order
(latest Golfstat/Golfweek-Sagarin Ratings):
1. California^ (2/7)2. Stanford^ (9/8)3. San Diego State (14/14)4. UCF (22/22)5. LSU (25/23)6. UAB (37/35)7. Wichita State^ (38/36)8. Tennessee (47/45)9. Oregon State (50/48)10. Southeastern Louisiana (59/67)11. San Francisco (66/54)12. San Jose State^ (77/66)13. UC Davis^ (123/119)
Individuals1. Zac Blair, Brigham Young (28/42)2. Justin Shin, New Mexico State (39/68)3. Josh Anderson, Pepperdine (88/71)4. Alex Edfort, Pacific (158/83)5. Justin Keiley, Brigham Young (205/188)6. Allan Jun, UC Irvine (NR/193)7. Mason Casper, Utah Valley (NR/212)8. Johnny MacArthur, Pepperdine (NR/223)9. Jarred Bossio, Idaho (NR/210)10. Zachery Fullerton, New Mexico State (NR/286)
^ = earned conference's NCAA automatic bid
SDSU At Regionals (*Regional play began in 1989)Year Finish - Site Score1990 13th - Las Cruces, N.M. 8711995 18th - Albuquerque, N.M. 9121997 18th - Santee, Calif. 9291999 5th - Tucson, Ariz. 8752000 18th - Fresno, Calif. 8832001 12th - Corvallis, Ore. 8872002^ t-10th - Albuquerque, N.M. 8822003 t-9th - Auburn, Wash. 8852004 13th - Sunriver, Ore. 8922005 7th - Stanford, Calif. 8602006 t-17th - Tucson, Ariz. 8602007 24th - Tempe, Ariz. 8842008+ t-9th - Bremerton, Wash. 8882009 7th - Daly City, Calif. 8572010 t-8th - Santee, Calif. 8992011 1st - Tucson, Ariz. 833^SDSU eliminated by Texas Tech in sudden-death playoff+SDSU and Texas advanced over Pepperdine in three-team sudden-death playoff.