Michigan Golf: They make the NCAA Regional first time in 8 years

from MGoBlue.com
http://www.mgoblue.com/golf-m/article.aspx?id=136812

Wolverines Earn First NCAA Regional Bid in Eight Years

May 5, 2008

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's golf team earned a bid to the NCAA Central regional Monday (May 5), marking the first time the Wolverines will play in the NCAA postseason in eight years. It marks the third time the Maize and Blue will compete in an NCAA regional formatted event. U-M played in the 1997 and 2000 Central Regional.

A total of 27 teams and six individuals -- not from a qualifying team -- will compete at one of three regional sites. The Wolverines, who were the No. 15 seed, will head to the NCAA Central regional at Columbus, Ohio, Thursday through Saturday (May 15-17). The 54-hole stroke play event, with 18 holes played each day, will be held at the OSU's Scarlet Course. The other two regional sites will the East regional played at the Council Fire Golf Club in Chattanooga, Tenn., and hosted by Tennessee-Chattanooga and the West regional played at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash., and hosted by Washington.

Competing with the Wolverines at the Central regional will include (by seeding order): Alabama (1), Oklahoma State (2), Georgia Tech (3), Florida (4), Tennessee (5), Lamar (6), Wake Forest (7), Indiana (8), Texas A&M (9), Louisville (10), Wichita State (11), Kent State (12), Penn State (13), Arkansas (14), U-M (15), TCU (16), Texas-Arlington (17), Illinois (18), Ohio State (19), Baylor (20), Colorado (21), Eastern Kentucky (22), Marquette (23), Eastern Michigan (24), Cleveland State (25), Loyola (Maryland) (26) and Sacred Heart (27). The six invited individuals selected were: Iowa State's Chris Baker, Minnesota's Clayton Rask and Victor Almstrom, Notre Dame's Josh Sandman, Western Kentucky's Brent Long and Northern Iowa's Jordan Weber.

From each regional the top 10 teams and top two individuals not from a qualifying team will advance to the NCAA Finals. The 2008 NCAA Finals will be Wednesday through Saturday (May 28-31) at the Boilermaker Golf Complex-The Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Ind., and hosted by Purdue. The finals will be 72 total holes with a team cut after 54 holes to the top 15 teams and top six individuals of a non-qualifying team competing for the NCAA title.

Before the Wolverines head to Columbus, Ohio, the Maize and Blue will close the regular season with one final tournament Saturday and Sunday (May 10-11) at Oklahoma's The Maxwell in Ardmore, Okla. The 54-hole event will be played at Dornick Hills Country Club.

Comments from Michigan coach Andrew Sapp

On Michigan earning the first NCAA regional bid in eight years ... "We are just thrilled. It was one of our main goals at the beginning of the season – to qualify for the NCAA regional. It shows that you played well and consistently throughout the entire year as opposed to just playing well in one tournament and getting the automatic qualifier spot by winning your conference. We have had some fine play from some players – with some individual wins. We had a couple of wins for our team as well. So we are please to be heading on to our postseason."

On if Michigan getting to the NCAA regional is the right step for the program at this point ... "It's a long time coming. This is probably something that we have waited a little longer for than I had envisioned. But we are very pleased to be going. Obviously, we don't want this to be a flash in the pan. We want this to be a regular occurrence year in and year out. Hopefully we will move on to the championship at Purdue this year and keep qualifying each year for the finals. We want to make this a regular event on our schedule."

On if he thinks his Wolverines are confident enough to advance to the NCAA Finals ... "Definitely. It is just a matter of playing well. We just have to play to the level that we know we are capable of playing. If we do that, we know we can advance. It's never easy. It's a matter of everyone clicking. The beauty of it right now is that we have been out of school for a week now and we have been able to focus solely on golf and concentrate 100 percent of our efforts into improving our golf games and getting ready for this regional championship."