When: May 17-19
Where: Par-72, 7,057-yard Karsten Golf Course, Tempe, Ariz.
Who: Top five teams according to seed (
Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings in parenthesis).
1. Stanford (2)
2. UCLA (8)
3. UNLV (9)
4. Southern California (5)
5. East Tennessee State (13)
Scoop: You better bring your ‘A’ game. The best are in the West. Nine of the nation’s top 22 teams will be in attendance when NCAA West Regional play gets underway Thursday at the Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz. The East has six and the Central has seven.
Headlining the 27-team field is Stanford, with six victories in 11 starts and picture this: Four of Stanford’s five players rank in the top 26, and No. 5 is ranked 61st
Short Shots: Everyone has been waiting to see how Southern California will play after a after winning the Pac-10 Championship by 36 strokes a few weeks ago. Toss in UCLA, UNLV, BYU, host Arizona State and Arizona and you certainly have the makings for a wild west shootout on a course known to give up red numbers.
• Wake Forest and East Tennessee State were also sent a couple of time zones to the left. After missing the NCAA Championship in 2004, Wake Forest has won the last two East Regionals and will look to make it three in a row this week.
• This event could be a major factor in the chase for player of the year with the nation’s three top-ranked players in the field. No. 1 is Southern California’s Jamie Lovemark, who has three wins this season including an impressive showing at the Pac-10 Championship. Arizona State’s Niklas Lemke, a senior, has three victories and has not finished outside the top 15 in 10 events. East Tennessee State’s Rhys Davies also has three wins this year. This week, the advantage has to go to Lemke playing on his home track.
Not to brag, but check this out: To kick off the spring season, Lance Ringler, Ron Balicki and Eric Soderstrom made their POY predictions: Ringler – Lemke; Balicki – Davies; Soderstrom – Lovemark.
• In April, Oregon visited Tempe and knocked off five top-25 teams to win the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational. The Ducks will need the same magic if they hope to advance to the NCAA Championship.
• It’s that time of the year for Washington. You have to go back nine years to the 1997-98 season to find the last Washington team to not finish inside the top 10 in regional play. And it doesn’t stop there: Washington has five consecutive top-11 showings at the NCAA Championship.
Field:1. Stanford No. 2
2. UCLA No. 8
3. UNLV No. 9
4. Southern California (Pacific-10 Conference champion) No. 5
5. East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun Conference champion) No. 13
6. BYU (Mountain West Conference champion) No. 15
7. Arizona State No. 19
8. Wake Forest No. 21
9. Arizona No. 22
10. UC Irvine (Big West Conference champion) No. 38
11. South Carolina No. 33
12. Washington No. 35
13. Vanderbilt No. 46
14. Augusta State No. 40
15. Pepperdine (West Coast Conference champion) No. 41
16. San Diego State No. 48
17. New Mexico No. 52
18. Oregon State No. 60
19. Colorado State No. 65
20. Oregon No. 57
21. California No. 54
22. Nevada (Western Athletic Conference champion) No. 83
23. Denver No. 81
24. Pennsylvania (Ivy Group champion) No. 165
25. Detroit (Horizon League champion) No. 179
26. Bucknell (Patriot League champion) No. 229
27. Monmouth (Northeast Conference champion) No. 249
Individuals:1. Brian Locke, Loyola Marymount No. 50
2. Darrin Hall, San Diego No. 180
3. Dustin Pimm, Utah No. 217
4. Michael McRae, St. Mary’s (California) No. 240
5. Geoff Gonzalez, Cal Poly No. 241
6. Thomas Petersson, Pacific No. 294
•••
Lance Ringler is a
Golfweek assistant editor. You can e-mail him at
lringler@golfweek.com.
Posted: 5/15/2007
print
email
discuss
