The No. 26 University of Kentucky men?s golf team will compete for the NCAA title this weekend in Sunriver, Ore. The four-day tournament is 72-hole event that runs from Wednesday-Saturday, May 31-June 3, at the par 72 Crosswater Golf Course.
Kentucky played at Crosswater earlier this season, Sept. 26-28, when they participated in the NCAA Preview and finished sixth.
The championship tournament consists of 30 teams and the nation’s top six individuals not on those teams. All 156 players will compete on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday while Saturday’s final round is cut to the top 15 teams and top six individuals not on an advancing team.
Qualifying teams are Wake Forest, Georgia, Texas Tech, North Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, UCLA, Auburn, South Carolina, UNLV, Oklahoma State, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Lamar, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Clemson, Duke, Arizona, Florida, Arizona State, Washington, North Carolina State, BYU, Loyola Marymount, East Tennessee State, Nevada and Pepperdine.
Individual qualifiers include Scott Stallings (Tennessee Tech), Brendon Wood (USC), Robert Streb (Kansas State), Randy Lowry (Texas), James Love (Denver) and Dustin Pimm (Utah).
Senior Matt Kohn, junior Tyler Wilson, sophomore Brad Doster and freshmen Andy Winings and Dan Woltman will hit the links for the Wildcats this week. The Wildcats finished tenth at the NCAA Central Regional, May 18-20, in Chardon, Ohio, to earn the seventh trip to the NCAA tournament for the Kentucky program. This is the fourth trip in five years under the direction of head coach Brian Craig.
Kohn is the only player returning to the national championship as the Longwood, Fla., native plays in his third straight NCAA tournament. Kohn was part of the 2004 team that finished eighth and returned with the 2005 squad which recorded the best performance in school history with a seventh-place finish last year.
The Wildcats are set to tee off on Wednesday, May 31, at 12:05 p.m. ET. UK will be the final team to tee off on Thursday as they are set to begin play at 5:17 p.m. ET in the second round.
?This team is due for all five guys to play well and have a great week,? said fifth-year head coach Brian Craig. ?We have played this course and it seems to fit our team pretty well. Maybe this will be the week we get hot and play like we are capable.?
