Texas Tech Tees Off at Southwest Regional on Thursday
May 13, 2009 | Men's Golf
May 13, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech tees off in its eighth-straight NCAA regional appearance Thursday as the No. 17 Red Raiders enter the Southwest Region in Austin at a No. 3 seed. The University of Texas Golf Club will host the three-day, 54-hole event.
At stake for the Red Raiders is the program's fourth NCAA Championships appearance in head coach Greg Sands' nine seasons. The top five teams from each of six regional sites will advance to the championships in Toledo, Ohio, May 27-20.
Texas Tech is no stranger to this week's course as the team recently competed in the Morris Williams Intercollegiate, hosted by the University of Texas, March 30-31. The Red Raiders finished sixth out of 18 teams and was led by Chris Ward's top 10 finish.
As one of the only teams in the NCAA regional field to play the course this year, Sands said the Red Raiders should have a slight advantage over most of the field.
"I was pulling to go to Austin," Sands said after the NCAA announced the field May 4. "We have a lot of experience there having played in the last two Morris Williams events. Several of our players played there as juniors, so round-for -round we probably have as much experience as anyone on the course, except UT. It's good to know the course and that should be valuable. We haven't been playing well lately, but I've seen glimpses from everybody, and we're about to breakthrough."
The Red Raiders fell short a year ago from making the NCAA Championships after securing a spot in each of the previous two seasons. Overall, in the history of the program, Texas Tech teams have participated in nine NCAA Championships, with three coming under Sands - 2002, 2006 and 2007.
All-Big 12 Conference selection Nils Floren is leading the Red Raiders on the season with a 72.6 stroke average and has a team-leading three top 10 finishes in seven events. Santiago Rivas has a 73.3 stroke average and also has three top 10 finishes in nine events. Rivas picked up his first-career win in early March at the USF Intercollegiate in Tampa, Fla.
Garrett Merrell and Chris Ward are averaging 73.5 and 74.0 strokes per round, respectively, while Ward joined Rivas in the winner's circle this spring with a victory at the UTSA Invitational in San Antonio. Rounding out the lineup is redshirt freshman Brian Scherer, who only played in one event during the spring at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate. He finished in a 67th-place tie. Rivas and Merrell will be playing in their fourth regional, while Floren and Scherer make their first appearances.
Live scoring of the event can be located at www.golfstat.com and daily updates will be available at www.texastech.com.
Players Mentioned
