Chattanooga Finishes NCAA Regional in 19th Place
ALPHARETTA, Ga.--The Chattanooga men’s golf historic season came to an end after its first foray at the NCAA Regionals concluded with the Mocs in 19th place.
The Mocs finished 26 strokes out of the final qualifying spot for the NCAA Championships Finals to be held in Williamsburg, Va. at the end of the month.
Top-ranked Georgia fired a 7-under par 281 and was the only team under par, to earn the team victory at 9-under par 855. No. 9 Florida tied with No. 30 Auburn and No. 13 Georgia Tech for second place, 12 strokes back.
Chattanooga, ranked No. 34, posted a 17-over par team score of 305 to give the Mocs a team score of 910 over the three rounds. UTC was in 11th after the first round, opening with a 299. A second-round 306 slipped the Mocs into a tie for 17th after two rounds.
Florida State, Duke, Charlotte, North Carolina, Georgia State and Coastal Carolina also advanced to the finals, with the Chanticleers defeating Clemson on the fourth playoff hole to break a tie for 10th place.
The Mocs best score came from senior Bryce Ledford whose final collegiate round featured an eagle on the 419-yard, par-4 16th hole. Ledford was even par after 12 holes as a result of three birdies offset by three bogeys. Three consecutive bogeys threatened to undo Ledford’s day until his 8-iron from 160 yards found the cup for an eagle, returning him to 1-over on the day. A bogey followed on the 17th, but Ledford rolled in a 12 foot birdie putt on 18 to finish with a 73. Ledford’s three ?round total of 12-over par 228 was good for a tie for 78th in the 141-player field.
Sophomore Jonathan Hodge, whose opening-round 71 was the Mocs’ low round of the tournament, made two double-bogeys on the front nine to go with a single birdie. Hodge played the back nine in even par to finish with a round of 75. His three-round total of 223 was the Mocs’ best, good for 50th place.
Freshman Fredrik Qvicker, who entered the day tied for 20th, also made two double-bogeys on the front side while carding a 79 and sliding to a tie for 56th. Senior Mitch Brock managed a 78 which included both a double and a triple-bogey.
“I am really proud of our team” said Chattanooga head coach Mark Guhne. “Things did not go the way we wanted them to go this week, but they battled and never gave up. This team made history this year. With four wins, the first SoCon title in 20 years, the highest ranking in school history, and the school’s first trip to the NCAA’s it is hard to get too worked up over not playing well a few days.”
Guhne paid tribute to the team’s two seniors, Mitch Brock and Bryce Ledford. “This program is where it is today because of Mitch and Bryce. When we recruited them, they took a risk by signing with us, because they were better than the type of players we were getting at the time. They laid the foundation for us to get players like Jonathan (Hodge), Freddy (Qvicker), and Derek (Rende). We owe a big thanks to Mitch and Bryce for helping us get started. We told them when they signed that we wanted to get the NCAA’s and they were a big part of us getting here this year.”
TEAM SCORES: (with Golfstat Ranking)
1. Georgia (1) 286-288-281?855 (-9)
T2. Florida (9) 290-285-292?867 (+3)
T2. Auburn (30) 293-284-290?867 (+3)
T2. Georgia Tech (13) 284-294-289?867 (+3)
5. Florida State (20) 300-292-281?873 (+9)
6. Duke (26) 288-293-293?874 (+10)
7. Charlotte (22) 296-291-288?875 (+11)
8. North Carolina (24) 305-286-286?877 (+13)
9. Georgia State (16) 289-304-287?880 (+16)
T10. #Coastal Carolina (11) 300-290-294?884 (+20)
------------Did Not Qualify for Finals---------------------
T10. Clemson (8) 293-299-292?884 (+20)
12. Virginia Tech (46) 304-292-292?888 (+24)
13. UCF (44) 299-294-297?890 (+26)
14. UAB (43) 303-299-296?898 (+34)
15. Eastern Michigan 300-309-290?899 (+35)
16. Penn State 297-304-300?901 (+37)
17. Ole Miss (35) 309-297-297?903 (+39)
18. Jacksonville State 303-301-304?908 (+44)
19. CHATTANOOGA (34) 299-306-305?910 (+46)
20. Maryland 295-310-307--912 (+48)
21. St. John’s 316-302-305?923 (+59)
22. Old Dominion 314-301-311?926 (+62)
23. Louisiana-LaFayette 309-319-309?937 (+73)
T24. Rhode Island 321-309-310?940 (+76)
T24. Hartford 321-315-304?940 (+76)
26. Boston College 315-316-316?947 (+83)
27. Longwood 309-327-315?951 (+87)
CHATTANOOGA INDIVIDUALS
T50. Jonathan Hodge 71-78-75?224 (+8)
T56. Fredrik Qvicker 73-73-79?225 (+9)
T78. Bryce Ledford 78-77-73?228 (+12)
T105. Mitch Brock 77-79-78?234 (+18)
133. Derek Rende 78-78-89?245 (+29)
WCU Junior Matt Cook Posts Career-Best Finish at NCAA East Regional
Alpharetta, Ga. - Western Carolina junior Matt Cook shot five-over, 77, in Saturday's final round at the NCAA Men's Golf East Regional, slipping into a four-way tie for 46th with a three-day total of 223. Cook, who was making his second-consecutive appearance at the regional event after earning an individual at-large bid, posted his career-best finish at the event improving over 60 spots from a season ago.
With the top 10 teams advancing to the NCAA National Championship, Cook was 14th among the individuals who were not eligible to advance as a team, which included members off the 11th-place through 27th-place finishing teams.
Top-ranked Georgia completed the tournament with a nine-under-par total of 855 to claim the team championship, while Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech each finished tied for second with three-over, 867. Joining the Bulldogs, Gators, Tigers and Yellow Jackets to advance to the NCAA Division I Championship May 30-June 2 at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va., are fifth-place finishing Florida State (873), Duke (874), Charlotte (875), North Carolina (877) and Georgia State (880), who finished fifth through ninth.
Coastal Carolina defeated Clemson for the 10th and final qualifying team in a playoff that lasted four holes and two-and-a-half hours.
Florida's Billy Horschel and Brendon Todd of Georgia finished tied atop the individual leader board with 54-hole scores of six-under, 210. Todd's Bulldog teammate, Chris Kirk, finished tied for third with Clemson's Kyle Stanley at five-under, 211, with Auburn's Patton Kizzire rounding out the top five with a four-under, 212.
With Coastal Carolina edging Clemson for the final team transfer spot, Stanley as well as UAB's Zach Sucher were the top to finishing individuals not on a qualifying team, thereby earning a berth in the NCAA National Championship.
Cook got off to a rough start, bogeying his first hole of the morning on No. 10, before carding a double and triple bogey on the par 4 No. 12 and par 3 No. 13, respectively. Two additional bogeys had the Murphy, N.C., native staring at eight over before the turn, but Cook recovered to birdie the par 5 18th for the second-straight day to finish the back nine at seven-over.
Over the final nine holes, Cook played his best golf of the 54-hole tournament, shooting two-under with birdies on the par 4 No. 4 and his final hole, the par 5 No. 9.
The tournament concludes the season for Cook, who currently sits atop Western's all-time career scoring chart and was the nation's top-rated golfer according to Golfstat at mid-season. During the 2006-07 campaign, he posted seven top 10 finishes, including three-consecutive individual medalist honors during the fall portion of the season and a fourth-place showing at last month's Southern Conference Championship. The All-SoCon performer and two-time SoCon Player of the Month this season was also twice recognized by Golf World, making its mid-season "All-American" team and was named "Most Surprising Player" in the nation by the publication.