May 16, 2011
SDSU Men's Golf NCAA Regional Notes in PDF Format
The eighth-ranked San Diego State men's golf team returns to the scene of its most recent victory, as the Aztecs will take part in the 2011 NCAA Arizona Regional at the par-71, 7,199-yard OMNI Tucson National Golf Resort, May 19-21. The Aztecs, who are making their 13th consecutive and 16th regional appearance overall, will be among the field vying for a spot in the NCAA national championships slated for May 31-June 5 in Stillwater, Okla.
SDSU earned the No. 2 seed out of the 14 teams in the Arizona regional, snagging one of the 28 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament as a result of winning its' first-ever MWC crown on the same course in Tucson on May 7. Overall, 81 NCAA Division I schools garnered invitations to play in one of the six regional events that will also be played concurrently in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (USD host), Erie, Colo. (Colorado), Ocala, Fla. (Florida), Radford, Va. (Virginia Tech) and Zionsville, Ind. (Indiana).
Joining the Aztecs in Tucson this week will be 13 other teams, including six ranked in the top 40, and five individual competitors (75 golfers overall). The top five squads and the low individual not on an advancing team will move on to nationals from each of the six regionals.
Teams will play 18 holes (54 total) of stroke play each of the three days with a practice round on Wednesday, May 18. Thursday's first round is set to get underway at 8 a.m. PT with SDSU paired with Texas A&M and Texas Tech at the first hole. Friday's second round begins as early as 8 a.m., while Saturday's final 18 tees off at 7:30 a.m.
Live hole-by-hole stats will be available on golfstat.com, as well as goaztecs.com for all three rounds.
Aztec Line-Up For This Week
Eighth-year San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan will juggle his line-up a bit for this week's regional, taking freshman Todd Baek (Auckland, New Zealand) in place of sophomore Tom Berry (New Haw, England). Baek competed in each of team's 11 events prior to the MWC tournament and currently boasts the Aztecs' fourth-best season stroke average of 72.48.
The other four golfers will remain the same with senior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and juniors Colin Featherstone (Fallbrook, Calif.), Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) and J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.). Carlsson, Featherstone and Spaun each represented SDSU at last season's NCAA regional in Santee, while Kang was a member of the 2009 squad that went to Daly City.
Carlsson is the most experienced of the group and will be making his fourth consecutive NCAA regional appearance. He has been the Aztecs' top finisher the last two seasons, tying for 14th in 2010, and tying for 18th in 2009. Carlsson came in 19th at the regionals as a freshman, when the team last advanced to the national championships.
The 2011 NCAA Arizona Regional Field
A total of 14 teams and five individuals from five different schools comprise the 2011 NCAA Arizona Regional field. San Diego State is the lone Mountain West Conference squad in Tucson, while the Pac-10 has four teams and the Big 12 has two. The other seven schools come from seven different conferences comprising six states.
The Mountain West Conference will also be represented by the top-seeded individual at the regional in Brigham Young's Zac Blair. In all, seven MWC schools will have at least one golfer in the 2011 NCAAs with TCU and Colorado State going to Erie, Colo., and UNLV traveling to Rancho Santa Fe. Wyoming's Gabe Maier and New Mexico's Travis Ross also garnered individual trips.
The Aztecs are one of six teams ranked in the top 40 nationally by golfstat.com. that will be participating at the OMNI Tucson National. Top-seed Texas A&M is rated seventh, followed by No. 8 SDSU, No. 18 Texas Tech, No. 19 California, No. 30 Liberty and No. 31 Washington. Pepperdine and Oregon State are also ranked among the top 50.
San Diego State has seen five of the other 13 teams at tournaments earlier this season and had a combined head-to-head record of 21-5 against them.
A Look At The Course
The host site of the 2011 NCAA Men's Golf Arizona Regional is the par-71, 7,199-yard OMNI Tucson National Golf Resort, located in Tucson, Ariz.
The OMNI Tucson National is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains and has played host to over 30 PGA Tour Events, including the prestigious Chrysler Classic of Tucson. It was designed by Robert Van Hagge and Bruce Devlin and utilizes a Parland style with eight lakes, 80 bunkers and Tifway 419 pollen-free Bermuda grass in the fairways.
This is the fifth time the OMNI Tucson National has been the site of an NCAA men's golf regional, also doing so in 1992, 1994, 1999 and 2006. SDSU participated in both the latter two editions, placing fifth and tying for 17th, respectively. As mentioned previously, the Aztecs competed on the same course two weeks ago and have done so five consecutive years overall for the MWC championships.
Aztecs At The NCAA Regionals
Since the NCAA regional tournaments began in 1989, SDSU has received a bid 16 times, including a current streak of 13 straight from 1999 to 2011.
The Aztecs have placed in the top 10 on five occasions, with their best finish coming in 1999, when the team came in fifth after carding a combined 11-over 875 in Tucson. The lowest team score in regional competition for SDSU occurred two years ago, when it posted a 7-under 857 en route to a seventh-place finish at Lake Merced Golf Course.
In 2005, Gilberto Rodriguez recorded the best individual finish by an Aztec at an NCAA regional when he tied for sixth after firing an even-par 210, which is the lowest 54-hole total at a regional in school history. The best single round by an SDSU golfer at a regional was logged by Magnus Carlsson, who shot a 6-under 66 in 1999.
The Aztecs have advanced to the national championships 25 times in school history, including four times (1999, 2003, 2005, 2008) since the regional format made its debut.
Flashback: SDSU At 2010 NCAA Regional
San Diego State saw its 2009-10 campaign come to an end with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA San Diego Regional in Santee, Calif., May 20-22. The Aztecs completed the 54-hole tournament tied with UC Irvine at 35-over 899.
SDSU was in 10th place through the first 18 holes, but then improved to seventh after posting a second-round 294. The Aztecs were unable to rally on the final day, dropping one slot with a 301, which was good for only ninth-best out of the 13 teams in the final 18 holes.
Then junior Johan Carlsson 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. Freshman Tom Berry was 18th through 36 holes, but posted a final-round 77 to end up in 33rd place with a 225.
Sophomores Andrew Cooley and J.J. Spaun both finished out the event in 45th and 49th place, respectively, while classmate Colin Featherstone tied for 68th in his NCAA debut.
Top-ranked Oregon easily won the team title by 10 strokes over eventual national champion Augusta State with a 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.
Donovan, Spaun, Kang Earn All-MWC Honors
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan was named the 2010-11 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, while juniors Alex Kang and J.J. Spaun each picked up all-league accolades, the MWC office announced last Tuesday.
Donovan becomes the first Aztec in the conference's 12-year history to be named coach of the year, after already directing SDSU to six tournament victories, including the program's first MWC title. The team have been ranked as high as fourth nationally by golfstat.com, and has 11 top-five finishes, including 10 in the top three, while boasting a combined head-to-head record of 142-16, which amounts to a 89.9 winning percentage. SDSU hasn't finished lower than seventh at any 2010-11 outing and has twice been named the national team of the week by GolfWeek.
Spaun and Kang rank first and second on the team this season in stroke average and are third and fourth in that category in the conference. The juniors have both won an individual title and have received league golfer-of-the-month accolades at least once in 2010-11. This marks the first campaign that San Diego State has had two players selected to the all-conference team since 2007-08.
In The National Rankings
Despite winning the MWC title, San Diego State dropped one spot to eighth nationally in the latest golfstat.com rankings released last Wednesday. With six tournament victories in 2010-11, including five in nine spring events, the Aztecs are second nationally in that category, trailing only consensus No. 1 Oklahoma State, which has claimed seven titles.
SDSU has also been rated 13th in the nation by Golfweek/Sagarin (as of May 8) and is eighth in the Golf World/NIKE Golf Division I Coaches' Poll, which was released on April 27.
Rewind: Aztecs Win First MWC Title
The San Diego State men's golf team won its first-ever Mountain West Conference Championship in dramatic fashion, holding off second-place TCU by two strokes at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz. The seventh-ranked Aztecs, who won their sixth tournament title of 2010-11, finished the three-day, 54-hole event with a 5-under 847.
The Aztecs had three golfers place in the top seven and four in the top 20 overall. Junior Alex Kang had two sub-par rounds and 14 total birdies, including five in the final round, to take fourth with a 4-under 209. Junior J.J. Spaun and senior Johan Carlsson both finished in the top 10, tying for seventh place at 1-under 212. Carlsson was in a three-way tie atop the individual leaderboard at the conclusion of the second round of play, but after carding only one bogey through the first 36 holes, he had seven in the final round for a 6-over 77. Spaun, meanwhile, moved up one spot with his 1-over 72 to log his sixth top-10 performance in nine spring events.
Aztec junior Colin Featherstone improved by one stroke each round to tie for 17th, while sophomore Tom Berry came in 31st overall with his 8-over 221.
Aztec 10-11 Highlights
The San Diego State men's golf team is in the midst of one of the finest seasons in program history. The Aztecs have been ranked as high as fourth nationally by golfstat.com and have won six tournament titles, including five in nine spring starts. The team has 11 top-five finishes with 10 in the top three, and boasts a combined head-to-head record of 142-16, which amounts to a 89.9 winning percentage. SDSU hasn't finished lower than seventh at any 2010-11 outing and was twice named GolfWeek national Team of the Week.
Individually, juniors Alex Kang (Alister MacKenzie Invitational) and J.J. Spaun (ASU Thunderbird Invitational), have each picked up medalist honors during the campaign. Kang was tabbed MWC golfer of the month in November and Spaun garnered the same honor in February and in March, before being named GolfWeek national player of the week on April 11, following his victory in Tempe.
Up Next
The top five teams and the low individual not on one of those teams will advance out of the NCAA Arizona Regional to the national championships, scheduled for May 31-June 5 at Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla.
Thirty total teams and six individuals will play 54 holes of stroke play over a three-day period to determine the individual national champion. The final three days will feature match play between the top eight squads for the team national title.
SDSU's most recent trip to the NCAA national tournament came in 2008, when the team took 14th in West Lafayette, Ind.