Men's Golf In Florida For NCAA East Regional Championships
05/16/2006 | Men's Golf
May 16, 2006
2006 NCAA East Region Guide in PDF Format
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The Spiders earned their first NCAA Championship appearance since 2001, and the fourth in school history, after finishing as the third-ranked team in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Richmond competed in the NCAA Regionals for three-straight years from 1999-2001, and earned a berth in the 1999 NCAA National Championships after finishing eighth in the 1999 East Regional.
Richmond, which finished fourth at the Atlantic 10 Championship, is seeded 24th out of 27 teams in the East Regional, which is one of three Regionals being played this weekend. The top-10 teams and two individuals not on advancing teams from each Regional will play for the NCAA National Championship, May 31-June 3 at Crosswater Golf Club at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore.
The Spiders will play a practice round Wednesday at the par-72, 7,175-yard Lake Nona Golf Course, consistently ranked among the top-100 courses in the world. Many of the world's greatest professional players call Lake Nona Golf & Country Club home and the course is a host of the Tavistock Cup, billed as the World's Golf and Country Club Championship. Lake Nona's resident professionals, including Tiger Woods, compete against Isleworth Country Club resident professionals.
"We're excited to get down there and get a good practice round in on a tremendous golf course," first-year Richmond head coach Adam Decker said. "The guys have been practicing hard for this and are looking forward to competing against some of the best teams in the country on a very challenging golf course."
Richmond will tee off the first round of the 54-hole event at 7:47 a.m. on Thursday morning, playing in threesomes with conference rivals Rhode Island and George Washington. Golfstat's Live Scoring will be available at RichmondSpiders.com.
The Atlantic 10 has a record five teams playing in the 2006 NCAA Golf Championships. Charlotte, which earned the conferences automatic bid, is the ninth seed in the East Regional, joined by Rhode Island (22), George Washington (23) and Richmond (24). Xavier is the 19th seed in the Central Regional.
The Spiders bring a relatively young squad to the NCAA East Regionals with one senior, one junior, two sophomores and a freshman. Sophomore Jordan Utley leads the team in scoring average (73.2) and has led the team in six of Richmond's 12 events, with five top-five finishes. Utley tied for ninth at the Atlantic 10 Championship to earn all-conference honors. He shot a pair of 4-under-par 68s in the first two rounds to have the lead entering the final day.
Junior John Pelet, who was out of the lineup for four-straight tournaments this spring, returned to finish in a tie for fifth at the Atlantic 10 Championship, earning all-conference honors. Pelet shot a 4-under 68 in the first round and a 5-under 67 in the third round, his best 18-hole score of his collegiate career.
Sophomore Chris Bagley is second on the team with a 74.4 scoring average, while senior senior Tyler Randol is third at 74.7. Freshman Tim Courtney, a five-time Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week who shot a 68 in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Championship, is fourth on the team with a 74.9 stroke average and five sub-par rounds.