Men's Golf Southern Conference

SoCon Sends Three Teams to NCAA Men's Golf Regionals

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- East Tennessee State, College of Charleston and Georgia Southern will represent the Southern Conference in the 2001 NCAA Men's Golf Regional Championships, it was announced Tuesday. ETSU and GSU will compete in the East Regional May 17-9 in Williamsburg, Va. CofC will compete in the Central Regional May 17-19 in Stillwater, Okla.

ETSU is making its eighth straight appearance in the NCAA field. Last year, the Bucs advanced to the NCAA Championship after finishing fourth at the East Regional in Moosic, Pa. ETSU has competed in 14 NCAA tournaments and finished 3rd in 1996 at the Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn. Two-time All-American Chris Wisler finished tied for 24th last year. ETSU is currently 18th in the Mastercard Collegiate Golf Rankings.

GSU, ranked 47th in the most recent Mastercard Collegiate Golf Rankings, returns to the postseason after a nine-year absence. The Eagles last NCAA appearance was in 1989 where they posted the second-best scoring average in school history (291.15). GSU has competed in 10 NCAA Championships and two Regionals.

CofC will make its first appearance in an NCAA Regional. Cougar senior Jedd McCluen competed as an individual competitor in the 2000 NCAA Championships. CofC is currently ranked 27th in the Mastercard Collegiate Golf Rankings.

Kirk Satterfield will represent Furman as an individual qualifier and will compete in the East Regional.

COUGARS EARN AT-LARGE BID TO CENTRAL REGIONAL IN OKLAHOMA

The NCAA Golf Committee extended the College of Charleston men's golf team an invitation to participate in the Central Regional, being held at Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla., May 17-19. The announcement was made by Golf Committee Chairman Bob Livingstone by a teleconference 5 p.m. central time.

The Cougars are coming off one of their most successful seasons ever, having risen as high as 18th in the Mastercard Collegiate Golf Rankings earlier this spring. They are currently 27th in the national ranking and 5th in the South Division of District III.

The College of Charleston has finished in the top ten in all but one of its tournaments this season with the Cougars winning two of them, the prestigious Ron Smith Invitational at South Florida Feb 23-25 and the Conrad Rehling Alabama Invite Mar 23-25. Of the 12 tournaments the Cougars participated in, they finished second in four of them, including the Southern Conference Tournament where the College of Charleston lost to 18th-ranked East Tennessee State.

"This is what we've worked for all year," said Head Coach Mark Steelman. "On of our goals was to make it to the NCAA Regional and now that we've done that we can work on the other goal and that is to go to the NCAA Finals. We've got a good team and if we go out there and play well who knows where we can finish. Everybody's playing well and they all feel pretty good going into it."

The golf team is led by senior Jedd McLuen and sophomore Bruce McDonald. McLuen currently sits in 73rd in the individual rankings. He has seven top ten finishes this year, including a fourth-place at the Big "E" Shootout at Southern Methodist Sept. 13-14 and the Ron Smith Invite.

Earlier this year McLuen shot a career-low and team-low 64 at the LSU Spring Invite. McDonald, 95th in the latest Mastercard ranking, won the Ron Smith Invitational and came in fourth at the Gator Invitational Feb. 10-11. His low for the year is a 68 which he has done four times, including at the Southern Conference Tournament, where he finished fifth.

"It's a great opportunity to finish out my career this way." Said McLuen. "Making it to Nationals would be the pinnacle of all of our careers. With the conditions at Stillwater (Oklahoma) similar to here we have a great chance to compete well."

Other participants in the Central Regional include Northwestern, Minnesota, Kent State, Kansas and North Carolina. The College of Charleston is the third team from the Southern Conference to be selected. East Tennessee State and Georgia Southern will be going to the East Regional in Williamsburg, Va. The Regionals consist of 81 teams and 18 individuals.

This is the first time the golf team has been invited to the NCAA Regional. Last year McLuen went as an individual in the East Region.

EAST TENNESSEE STATE, GEORGIA SOUTHERN IN EAST REGIONAL

East Tennessee State and Georgia Southern will represent the Southern Conference in the NCAA Men's Golf Regional which begins May 17 at Golden Houseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va.

East Tennessee State earned an automatic bid by winning the Southern Conference golf tournament. Georgia Southern has been selected as an at-large team.

The second-best regular season in school history was indeed good enough for Georgia Southern to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Golf Regionals. The NCAA Divison I Men's Golf Committee announced the field shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern Tuesday evening.

The Eagles will make their first postseason appearance since 1989. Each of the three NCAA Regionals consists of 27 teams, with the top 10 teams from each regional advancing to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for May 30-June 3 at Duke University Golf Club in Durham, N.C. In all, 81 schools and six individuals (two from each region) will vie for the Division I Men's Golf Championship.

"We're excited and can't wait to get started," Eagle head coach Larry Mays said. "We reached another one of our goals, and that's always a great feeling. We're playing our best golf right now and hopefully we can keep it going."

The Eagles, in just their first season under Mays, posted the second-best scoring average in school history (294.15). Only the 1990-91 Eagle squad registered a lower stroke average (293.9). As a team, the Eagles have competed in the NCAA Championships 11 times, with four additional individual appearances.

After the most successful fall season in history, the Eagles followed with an even more impressive spring, capturing their first tournament title in over five seasons when they won the Ironwood Intercollegiate in Greenville, N.C. The Eagles followed with their best performance in 22 years in the Schenkel E-Z-GO Invitational -- their premier event -- finishing in second place and ahead of nine teams ranked in the top 20 in the country.

That performance earned Georgia Southern national recognition, as the golf program cracked the national rankings. Currently, the Eagles stand at 44th in GolfStat's Head-to-Head Standings, 47th in the MasterCard rankings and 48th in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Ratings. A pair of Eagles -- junior Justin Kolumber (74th) and sophomore Travis Mobley (85th) -- are ranked among the top 100 players in the country.

The Eagles took third place in the Southern Conference Golf Championships behind perennial power East Tennessee State and College of Charleston. Mays was named the Southern Conference Coach-of-the-Year while newcomer Tyler McKeever was named the league's Freshman-of-the-Year. Senior Christian Newton and junior Justin Kolumber were each named to the all-conference squad.

NCAA East Regional at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va. (May 17-19)

Participating Teams: 1. Alabama-Birmingham; 2. Auburn; 3. Charleston Southern; 4. Clemson; 5. Duke; 6. East Tennessee State; 7. Florida; 8. Georgia; 9. GEORGIA SOUTHERN; 10. Georgia State; 11. Georgia Tech; 12. Hartford; 13. Iona; 14. Louisiana State; 15. Maryland-Baltimore County; 16. Mississippi; 17. N.C. State; 18. Penn State; 19. Princeton; 20. Rhode Island; 21. Richmond; 22. Seton Hall; 23. St. John's; 24. Virginia Commonwealth; 25. Virginia Tech; 26. Xavier; 27. Yale

FURMAN'S SATTERFIELD RECEIVES NCAA REGIONAL BID

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman junior Kirk Satterfield, a native of Bluefield, W.Va., was selected by the NCAA Golf Committee to receive an individual at-large bid to the NCAA East Golf Regional, it was announced on Tuesday.

The East Regional will be held May 17-19 at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va. Satterfield joins Virginia's Cameron Yancey and Coastal Carolina's Rafael Vera as the only three individuals advancing to the East Region Championship.

Satterfield, a 2001 All-Southern Conference selection, has posted a 73.6 stroke average in 27 rounds this season, with a career-low 67 coming at the Cleveland Golf-Augusta State Invitational. He was victorious in the Furman Intercollegiate, and also finished in the top 10 at the ASU Invite and the Wofford Invitational.

The top three individual finishers in the East Regional not on an advancing team will earn a berth in the NCAA National Championship, which will be held May 31 through June 3 at the Duke Golf Club in Durham, N.C.