The University of Kentucky men?s golf team will compete in the NCAA Regional beginning Thursday, may 15th in Bremerton, Washington. The four-day tournament is a 72-hole event that runs Thursday-Saturday, May 15-17, at the par-72 Gold Mountain Golf Club.

Kentucky is playing in the West Regional with University of Southern California as the top seed in that region. The West region is hosted by the University of Washington.

The Wildcat starters are seniors Cale Barr (Versailles, Ky.), Brad Doster (Winter Park, Fla.), junior Andy Winings (Brownsburg, Ind.) and sophomores Brian Belden (Emmaus, Pa.) and Alex Volpenhein (Ft. Mitchell, Ky.). This is the second time in as many tournaments Coach Brian Craig has used this starting five.

Winings has set the pace this year with his consistent play and leads the team with a stroke average of 72.18. His best finish this year came with an individual first-place win at the Palmas Del Mar Intercollegiate in March. In 2006, Winings finished 15th at the NCAA tournament.

Qualifying teams in the West Regional are Southern California, UCLA, Florida State, Stanford, Clemson, UNLV, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Central Florida, Arizona State, San Diego State, Texas, LSU, Oregon State, Pepperdine, Oregon, California, St. Mary?s (California), Kentucky, Wisconsin, Washington, Oklahoma, Kansas State, San Diego, Denver, Navy and Columbia.

Individual qualifiers include Troy Merritt (Boise State), Brian Locke (Loyola Marymount) Tarquin Macmanus (Arizona), Jason D?Amore (Loyola Marymount) Nathan Stamey (North Carolina-Greensboro) and Jimmy Lytle (Elon).

This is the eighth trip to the NCAA tournament for the Kentucky program and the fourth trip in five years under the direction of head coach Brian Craig. The most recent trip to the NCAA championships for the Wildcats was their fifth place in 2006 overall giving Kentucky its best finish in the NCAA tournament in school history.

Complete coverage of the tournament with live stats can be viewed on ukathletics.com.