No. 18 Kent State Headed To Michigan For NCAA Regional May 17-19
5/7/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Golden Flashes seeded third in 13 team field
KENT, Ohio — No. 18 Kent State is headed to University of Michigan Golf Course for its 25th NCAA men's golf appearance. The Golden Flashes earned the third seed in the Regional which consists of 54-holes over three days May 17-19 with the top five teams advancing to the NCAA Finals.
This is the fourth season for a six-site NCAA Regional format with either 13 or 14 teams at each location. The top five teams and top individual not on those teams will advance to the NCAA Championship at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades May 29-June 3.
No. 5 USC is the top seed in the regional followed by No. 6 Oregon. Kent State is then followed by No. 19 Virginia and No. 30 Baylor which round out the top five seeds. The Golden Flashes earned the Mid-American Conference's automatic bid after a 40-stroke victory in the Mid-American Conference Championship gave the program its fourth straight and 20th overall conference title.
Since the regional format began in 1989, Kent State has now qualified for NCAA post season play 21 times in the past 24 years. The Golden Flashes have advanced to the NCAA Championship 15 times including each of the past two years. By tying for 19th at the 2011 NCAA finals, Kent State is among an elite group of only 10 schools that have finished top 20 at the NCAA Championship each of the past two seasons (Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Augusta State, Arizona State, San Diego, Texas A&M, USC, UCLA and Illinois). The 19th place finish was the fifth best showing in school history
The other five regionals consist of Grandover Resort (East Course) in Greensboro, N.C., University of Georgia Golf Cours in Athens, Ga., The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky., Jimmy Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla. and Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif.
Michigan Regional Field (by seeds; automatic qualifiers in parentheses):
1. USC
2. Oregon
3. Kent State (Mid-America Conference)
4. Virginia
5. Baylor
6. Oklahoma State
7. Kennesaw State
8. TCU
9. Purdue
10. N.C. State
11. Notre Dame (Big East Conference)
12. Ohio State
13. Navy (Patriot League)
Follow the team on Twitter @KentStGolf.
