15th-ranked Eagles granted at-large bid to NCAA Men’s Golf Championships
INDIANAPOLIS – The 15th-ranked Carson-Newman men’s golf team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championships’ South/Southeast Regional the NCAA announced on Friday for the Eagles’ first postseason appearance since 2014.
INDIANAPOLIS – The 15th-ranked Carson-Newman men's golf team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships' South/Southeast Regional the NCAA announced on Friday for the Eagles' first postseason appearance since 2014.
The top 10 teams in both the South and Southeast regions, which includes the three conference champions in each region, and the top four non-affiliated individuals were extended invitations to the South/Southeast Regional. The three conference champions in the Southeast region were Lincoln Memorial from the South Atlantic Conference, the Peach Belt Conference's Columbus State and Limestone from Conference Carolinas.
The Eagles are the eight-ranked team when combining the two regions, according to Golfstat.com, and the top-ranked team in the Southeast region coming in as the 11th-best team in Division II.
The three-day, 54-hole NCAA Division II South/Southeast Regional will be hosted by the Sunshine State Conference and Central Florida Sports Commission at Mission Inn Golf Club & Resort in Howie-in-the-Hills, Fla. and will be played on May 2-4. The top three teams and top two student-athletes not affiliated with a team from each region advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, Colo. on May 17-21.
"It's a great, great feeling. We are really excited. We felt like we had a team from the beginning of the year that would be going to the regional," coach Randy Wylie said. "We wanted to be good enough that we didn't have to win conference to make it; we certainly wanted to win conference and are disappointed we finished second. We had a team meeting and talked about how there is better stuff yet to come. It's exciting to be headed to Florida next week."
The Eagles finished second in their last event, the South Atlantic Conference Men's Golf Championships, on Tuesday and trailed LMU by four strokes.
This season, Carson-Newman has competed in 25 rounds of tournament play and the team averages 291.9 strokes per round. The team's low round of the year was an 11-under 277 at the Saint Leo's Men's Invitational in September. The Eagles have won two events in 2015-16, the State Farm Intercollegiate and the Tennessee River Ramble, with six top-five finishes.
C-N played the Mission Inn Golf Club & Resort earlier this season in the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Preview in February. The Orange and Blue finished seventh in the event after finishing the three-round event at 55-over 919. In the first round of play, C-N turned in its best round with a score of 305.
Wylie will send freshman Jake Headrick (Maryville, Tenn.), junior Dalton Reese (Warrenton, Ga.) and seniors Andrew Hall (Knoxville, Tenn.), Jace DeVault (Bluff City, Tenn.) and Nicklaus Kennedy (London, Ontario, Canada). Reese and Kennedy competed for the Orange and Blue the last time the program made the Regional in 2014; that year, the Eagles finished in 20th.
"We've got a good, solid team and they are tough players and solid players. We're as ready we can be. We need one more week of solid preparation and get a couple of guys to get their A-game together that kind of struggled at conference. They will be ready," Wylie said.
Besides Carson-Newman and the three conference champions, the other seven Southeast region teams heading to the Sunshine State is: Flager, South Carolina - Aiken, Georgia Southwestern, Young Harris, North Greenville and Lander. Out of the South region, the 10 teams competing is: Lynn, Saint Leo, West Florida, Florida Southern, Nova Southeastern, Barry, Lee (Tenn.), West Georgia, North Alabama and Miles. Tusculum's Brad Hawkins and Will Bundy from Coker are the two SAC representatives that will compete as individuals.
Surrounded by an abundance of natural Florida beauty, the El Campeón 18-hole championship course was designed by Chicago-based course architect, George O'Neil and built in 1917 - with further enhancements in 1926 by Charles E. Clarke of Troon, Scotland. El Campeón is one of the South's oldest golf courses and blends unusual Central Florida elevation changes of more than 85 feet with features of traditional golf design, including spectacular rolling fairways and undulating greens. El Campeón plays 6,928 yards and is scored as a par-72. In February 2016, El Campeón was ranked as the second-best course in the United State and the top course in Florida according to Golf Channel's GolfAdvisor.
South Region:
1. Lynn [Sunshine State Conference]
2. Saint Leo
3. West Florida [Gulf South Conference]
4. Florida Southern
5. Nova Southeastern
6. Barry
7. Lee
8. West Georgia
9. North Alabama
10. Miles [Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference]
Individuals:
1. Reed Lindsey, Delta State
2. Chris Rogers, Valdosta State
3. Gaelen Trew, Florida Tech
4. Alex Clark, Delta State
Southeast Region:
1. Flagler
2. South Carolina Aiken
3. Carson-Newman
4. Columbus State [Peach Belt Conference]
5. Georgia Southwestern
6. Lincoln Memorial [South Atlantic Conference]
7. Limestone [Conference Carolinas]
8. Young Harris
9. North Greenville
10. Lander
Individuals:
1. Brad Hawkins, Tusculum
2. Keith Egan, Clayton State
3. Nick Adams, Mount Olive
4. Will Bundy, Coker
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