Kent State University
NCAA Regionals
Flashes tee off in NCAA Sugar Grove Regional on Thursday
5/14/2014 1:31:00 PM | Men's Golf
SUGAR GROVE, Ill. – Kent State's men's golf team will begin the chase for a fifth consecutive national-championship berth on Thursday when the NCAA Sugar Grove Regional begins play 50 miles west of Chicago.
The three-day, 54-hole event held at Rich Harvest Farms will end on Saturday with five teams from the 14-team field advancing to Prairie Dunes in Kansas for the NCAA Championships.
This week's regional also marks a return to the 7,735-yard, par-72 course that was the site of the Golden Flashes' 40-shot win in the 2012 Mid-American Conference Championship.
"The course is in phenomenal conditions with greens at about 12 on the stimpmeter," said Kent State head coach Herb Page. "The course is playing very, very difficult, and it is set up like a national championship. This is going to be a very good test of golf, and we feel very fortunate to be here."
The No. 7 Golden Flashes will tee off beginning Thursday at 8:55 a.m. CDT on the firsts hole of Rich Harvest Farms in threesomes that will include players from No. 8 Purdue and No. 9 Mississippi State. The field also includes top-seed California, No. 2 Illinois, No. 3 USC, No. 4 Alabama Birmingham, No. 5 UNLV, No. 6 Clemson, No. 10 Cal Fullerton, No. 11 New Mexico State, No. 12 Jacksonville State, No. 13 Cleveland State and No. 14 Saint Peter's.
Page will send out a lineup that includes seniors Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Kyle Kmiecik, sophomore Kody Fry and freshman Josh Whalen. In Page's 36 seasons as head coach, he has led the Flashes to all of its 23 regional appearances and 15 of the program's 17 NCAA finals.
Conners shot 7-under-par to finish as the individual MAC champion in 2012 when the Flashes last visited Rich Harvest Farms. Pendrith finished eighth that week. The senior duo finished one-two on the individual leaderboard when the Flashes won the MAC Championship at Prairie View Golf Club in Indiana May 2-4. Conners and Pendrith were also named the MAC's co-players of the year.
"When I see this course and how difficult it is playing, I can't help but think back to when we won here and Corey shot 7-under here, and I wonder how we did it," said Page. "There are seven or eight really hard holes here where if you are not careful you are going to make a big number. We are going to have to play smart, be very patient, and if we hit a bad shot, accept it and try to make bogey."
Fans can follow live scoring for all of this week's NCAA Regional tournaments on Golfstat.com.
