Florida Men's Golf Opens NCAA Regional Tournament
Thursday, May 19, 2011 | Men's Golf
Florida men's golf head coach Buddy Alexander and the Florida men's golf team will kick off the NCAA Tournament at the Florida Regional in Ocala, Fla. on Thursday, May 19. The regional, hosted by the University of Florida, is a three-day, three-round tournament, with 18 holes each day. The Gators earned a No. 1 seed in the Florida Regional and will tee off at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
Florida will be joined by 13 other teams and five individuals, including defending national champion Augusta State at the No. 2 seed and SEC foe Arkansas at No. 3. Also in the field are top-25 teams (Golf World/Nike) No. 4 seed Oregon (22) and No. 5 North Carolina State (25).
The Gators have three players in the top 25 with senior Bank Vongvanij (Bradenton, Fla.) at No. 5, sophomore Phillip Choi (Orlando, Fla.) at No. 8 and redshirt-senior Andres Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia) at No. 23. Augusta State has two players in the top 25 with Patrick Reed at No. 7 and Henrik Norlander at No. 14. Arkansas' Sebastian Cappelen is the only other top-25 player participating in the tournament at No. 20.
UF has won an NCAA Regional four times, most recently in 2009, when it won the NCAA Southwest Regional. In the four years that UF won the National Title, it never won the NCAA Regional. There have been five Florida golfers win the individual medal in Regional competition.
The low five teams and low individual not on those teams at each of the six regional sites will advance to the NCAA Championships on May 31-June 5 at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Okla.
Florida is coming off its first SEC Championship since 2003. Three players finished in the top 10 with Echavarria's win, Choi's tie for third and Vongvanij's fifth-place finish.
At 8 a.m., the Gators will tee off with Augusta State and Arkansas.
Check back with www.GatorZone.com and the Florida men's golf facebook page for more information and www.golfstat.com for live scoring.
