The NCAA announced on May 6 that the No. 24 men’s golf team has been selected as the No. 4 seed for the NCAA Athens Regional, which will take place at the University of Georgia Golf Course from May 18 to May 20.
The selection places the team among top collegiate programs competing for a spot in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship. The Athens Regional is one of six regional tournaments, and only the top five teams and the lowest-scoring individual not on those teams will advance to nationals at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, scheduled for May 29 through June 3.
Director of golf Todd Miller said, “Based on our play this season, I feel like the 4th seed at the Athens Regional is fairly accurate. From a competition standpoint, if I could choose any regional, it would be the one we were selected to. If you’re going to win the national championship, you’ve got to go see how you stack up against the best team in the country, and we get to do it against Auburn. If the guys can play some great golf, I think we can hang with those teams which would build our confidence.”
This appearance marks BYU’s 28th regional showing since regionals began in 1989; historically, BYU has advanced to nationals on thirty-three occasions. The field at Athens includes No.1 Auburn along with Illinois (No.12), Vanderbilt (No.13), host Georgia, Louisville, Kansas, Northwestern, Charleston, Rice, Southern Miss, Harvard and Howard.
The University of Georgia Golf Course measures at a par-71 over its 7,258 yards and carries a course rating of 75.1.
Simon Kwon said about returning as defending regional champions: “Pumped for Georgia,” he said. “We are defending regional champs so we need to go in with that mentality that we are going to win a regional. We have the opportunity to beat the best team in the country and we are going to do everything we can do to prepare for this opportunity. We are one of the best teams in country and we are going to prove it everyone else.”
