AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Augusta State earned a postseason bid Monday afternoon to the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships when the Jaguars were made an at-large selection by the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Committee in Indianapolis, Ind.
The selection marks the 10th NCAA Regional bid in the last 11 years for the men’s golf program, and the 13th time in the last 16 years the Jaguars have been tabbed to participate in the postseason.
ASU will play in the NCAA East Regional, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, at Council Fire Golf Club in Chattanooga. The Jags will be the No. 17 seed in the three-day, 54-hole regional, which begins Thursday, May 15 and runs through Saturday, May 17. A practice round is slated for Wednesday, May 14.
Council Fire Golf Club is a Robert Cupp design that opened in 1992. The 6,999-yard, par-72 layout plays to a course rating of 73.8 and a slope rating of 137.
“We’ve had an interesting year and this really makes it all worth it,” said ASU head coach Josh Gregory, who will lead the Jags to their fifth regional appearance in his six-year tenure as head coach. “We still feel our best golf is ahead of us. We like our chances in Chattanooga and hopefully we’ll have a lot of support there.”
The Jags will be making their first East Regional appearance since 2004. ASU made three straight trips to the East Regional between 2002 and 2004 before being shipped to the Central Regional in 2005 and to the West Regional last season.
ASU, which will be paired with UC Irvine and SMU in the first two rounds, will be looking to advance to the NCAA Championships for the 10th time in 13 NCAA Regional appearances.
Each of the three NCAA Regionals (East, Central and West) consists of 27 teams and six individuals not on the selected teams. The top 10 teams and top two individuals not on advancing teams will move on from each regional to the NCAA Championships. The National Championships will be conducted May 28-31 on the Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind., and hosted by Purdue University.
Stanford is the defending national champion, while sophomore Jamie Lovemark of Southern California returns to defend the individual title he claimed as a freshman.
Live scoring of the NCAA East Regional will be available at www.golfstat.com.
110TH ANNUAL NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS EAST REGIONAL May 15-17, 2008 Council Fire Golf Club Chattanooga, Tenn. Hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Teams (seeded in the following order) 1. Georgia 2. Charlotte 3. South Carolina 4. Duke 5. Chattanooga 6. Auburn 7. East Tennessee State 8. Michigan State 9. Mississippi 10. UAB 11. Virginia Tech 12. North Carolina State 13. Mississippi State 14. Georgia State 15. North Florida 16. UC Irvine 17. AUGUSTA STATE 18. SMU 19. Middle Tennessee 20. Coastal Carolina 21. Memphis 22. Virginia 23. Western Carolina 24. Colorado State 25. New Mexico State 26. Western Illinois 27. Jackson State Individuals 1. Keegan Bradley, St. John’s (New York) 2. Jose Toledo, New Orleans 3. Johnny Caldwell, South Alabama 4. Michael McGrady, Troy 5. Jon Curran, Vanderbilt 6. Grant Leaver, Austin Peay CENTRAL REGIONAL May 15-17, 2008 Scarlet Golf Course Columbus, Ohio Hosted by The Ohio State University Teams (seeded in the following order) 1. Alabama 2. Oklahoma State 3. Georgia Tech 4. Florida 5. Tennessee 6. Lamar 7. Wake Forest 8. Indiana 9. Texas A&M 10. Louisville 11. Wichita State 12. Kent State 13. Penn State 14. Arkansas 15. Michigan 16. TCU 17. Texas-Arlington 18. Illinois 19. Ohio State 20. Baylor 21. Colorado 22. Eastern Kentucky 23. Marquette 24. Eastern Michigan 25. Cleveland State 26. Loyola (Maryland) 27. Sacred Heart Individuals 1. Chris Baker, Iowa State 2. Clayton Rask, Minnesota 3. Josh Sandman, Notre Dame 4. Victor Almstrom, Minnesota 5. Brent Long, Western Kentucky 6. Jordan Weber, Northern Iowa WEST REGIONAL May 15-17, 2008 Gold Mountain Golf Club Bremerton, Washington Hosted by University of Washington Teams (seeded in the following order) 1. Southern California 2. UCLA 3. Florida State 4. Stanford 5. Clemson 6. UNLV 7. North Carolina 8. Texas Tech 9. Central Florida 10. Arizona State 11. San Diego State 12. Texas 13. LSU 14. Oregon State 15. Pepperdine 16. Oregon 17. California 18. St. Mary’s 19. Kentucky 20. Wisconsin 21. Washington 22. Oklahoma 23. Kansas State 24. San Diego 25. Denver 26. Navy 27. Columbia Individuals 1. Troy Merritt, Boise State 2. Brian Locke, Loyola Marymount 3. Tarquin Macmanus, Arizona 4. Jason D’Amore, Loyola Marymount 5. Nathan Stamey, UNC Greensboro 6. Jimmy Lytle, Elon