Colorado State University Athletics
Rams Head to Florida For NCAA Kissimmee Regional
5/2/2018 4:41:00 PM | Men's Golf
CSU the No. 8 seed as the squad heads on its farthest trip of the year
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Led by 2018 Mountain West Coach of the Year Christian Newton, the CSU Men's golf team will head to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2012 when they play in the NCAA Kissimmee Regional, the NCAA announced today. The six regional sites will occur May 14-16, with the Rams playing at Reunion Resort in Kissimmee, Fla.Â
Making their 18th appearance in a NCAA Regional, the Rams enter the postseason ranked No. 40 according to Golfweek and No. 43 according to Golfstat, having played their strongest tournament schedule in the past 10 years. CSU also posted its second consecutive runner-up finish in the Mountain West Championship, the top back-to-back combined placings at the league tournament in program history. For the year, the Rams had one tournament victory in winning their fourth straight Ram Masters Invitational and recorded four other top-five finishes while finishing in the top 10 in all but one event.
The Rams are also sporting two All-Mountain West players this season, as sophomore AJ Ott and senior Max Oelfke were first and second, respectively, in stroke average for CSU with each having three top-10 placings in 2017-18. Ranked in the top 10 on CSU's career scoring chart, junior Jake Staiano is the only CSU player in this year's lineup with postseason experience, having qualified as an individual for last year's Austin Regional and tying for 38th. Also in the lineup for the Rams are a pair of freshmen, Parathakorn Suyasri and Jack Aisncough, who have combined for three top-10 individual finishes this season.
The top five teams and top individual not on advancing teams from each regional move on to the NCAA Championship, to be played at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla., May 25-30. Colorado State has also only made one NCAA Championships appearance, which was at the conclusion of the 1998-99 season.
There are six NCAA Regional sites, featuring a combined 81 teams (31 automatic bids to league champions and 45 at-large invites) and 45 individuals not on selected teams. The other five sites for the Regionals are: Lonnie Poole Golf Course (Raleigh, N.C.), Traditions Club (Bryan, Texas), Scarlet Course/OSU Golf Course (Columbus, Ohio), Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club (Norman, Okla.) and The Reserve at Spanos Park (Stockton, Calif.). Other Mountain West schools joining CSU in the NCAA field are Mountain West champion UNLV (Columbus, Ohio), Nevada (Norman, Okla.) and San Diego State (Norman, Okla.).