TOLEDO, OH - The nation’s top collegiate men’s golf teams will be in Northwest Ohio next week for the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships on May 26-30. The University of Toledo and the Inverness Club are serving as hosts for the event, marking the second time the Rockets have served as the tournament host with the previous occurrence coming 65 years ago in 1944.
A par-71, 7,255-yard course, the Inverness Club was founded in 1903 and has hosted four U.S. Opens, one U.S. Amateur, one U.S. Senior Open and two PGA Championships. The Rockets’ men’s golf program has also hosted the Inverness Intercollegiate there since 2000.
This year’s tournament is the 112th annual championship event in NCAA history and will feature a new twist with the team champion determined via match play, the first time the winner hasn’t been awarded by total strokes since 1965. The top eight teams after 54 holes of stroke play will advance to match play with the quarterfinals and semifinals being held on Friday, May 29 and the championship match set for Saturday, May 30. An individual champion will be crowned following Thursday’s play.
During the match-play portion of the championships, each match will be worth one point with all five players participating. The first team to win three points within the team match will advance or, in the case of the championship match, be declared the national champion.
Teams qualified for the NCAA Championships by participating at six regional sites last weekend in California, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Texas. The six regional champions were defending national champion UCLA (Central), Alabama (Northeast), No. 1 seed Oklahoma State (South Central), UCF (Southeast), Florida (Southwest) and Arizona State (West).
The Cowboys were one of 10 teams in this year’s field to compete in the Ping/Golfweek Preview at Inverness on September 28-30. OSU posted a 16-stroke win over Tennessee and finished with a tournament record of nine-under par 843. Volunteer sophomore Robin Wingardh (69-67-71) and Cowboy freshman Morgan Hoffmann (69-66-72) shared medalist honors at six-under par 207.
Some of the top individuals in the field include two players who have been ranked as the No. 1 amateurs in the world, Oklahoma State’s Rickie Fowler and Southern Cal’s Jamie Lovemark. Lovemark also captured the NCAA individual title in 2007.
In terms of conference representation, the Pac-10 leads the way with seven schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Southern Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Washington) followed by the SEC with six schools (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee), the Big Ten with five schools (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern and Ohio State) and the Big 12 (Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech) and ACC (Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest) with four schools apiece. Chattanooga (Southern), San Diego (West Coast), TCU (Mountain West) and UCF (Conference USA) are the remaining teams in the tournament.
Matt Hill (N.C. State), Hugues Joannes (Lamar), Brady Johnson (BYU), Cory Nagy (Charlotte), Cody Paladino (Baylor) and Kyle Stanley (Clemson) have also qualified as individuals and have an opportunity to capture the individual national title.
Tickets are available in advance by calling the University of Toledo Ticket Office at 419-530-GOLD or by visiting the ticket office in Savage Arena. Tickets can also be purchased at the course. The all-session pass is $35.00 and $15.00 for a single-day pass.
Below are the seedings for the 2009 NCAA Men's Golf Championships:
1. Oklahoma State
2. Alabama
3. Florida
4. Arizona State
5. UCLA
6. Georgia
7. Washington
8. Arkansas
9. Tennessee
10. Georgia Tech
11. Texas A&M
12. Illinois
13. Stanford
14. South Carolina
15. Southern California
16. Central Florida
17. Texas Tech
18. Oregon
19. Texas
20. Chattanooga
21. Arizona
22. Virginia
23. Ohio State
24. Northwestern
25. San Diego
26. TCU
27. Wake Forest
28. Duke
29. Michigan
30. Iowa
Courtesy: Toledo Athletics
