UW Earns No. 7 Seed at NCAA Cle Elum Regional
SEATTLE -- The University of Washington men's golf team earned its first bid to the NCAA regionals since 2017 as it was named the No. 7 seed in the 2021 NCAA Cle Elum Regional, which was announced Wednesday on the Golf Channel. The three-day, 54-hole event will be held at Tumble Creek Golf Club in Cle Elum, Wash., May 17-19. Spectators are welcome during the event. Masks must be worn at all times and spectators must stay on cart paths. Fans must check in at the gatehouse when entering the Tumble Creek area and no jeans and no smoking are allowed.
"Regionals is the most exciting tournament to play in, certainly to coach in because of what's at stake and it's a tournament where its better to play on a course you know, so we are nothing but fired up," said head coach Alan Murray. "This is a really strong field coming out to Washington and they'll all get a chance to play on a true championship course. I think good golf gets rewarded and bad golf gets punished which his what you're looking for in a championship course and Tumble Creek certainly is that. We feel like we have a good team and we're just going to work on getting our games in good shape over the next week and a half so we can go out there and compete for a chance to get to nationals."
Washington will play host to 13 other teams and five individuals on the 7,069 -yard par-71 course. The top five teams from each of the six regional sites and the top individual finisher not on an advancing team will advance to the national championships to be played May 28-June 2 at Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The 14-team regional is highlighted by No. 1 seed Wake Forest, who enters the event ranked No. 8 in the country. Pepperdine, ranked tied for sixth in the nation, is the No. 2 seed, followed by No. 3 seed and 20th-ranked Florida. The rest of the field includes 16th-ranked Arizona as the No. 4 seed, No. 5 San Francisco, No. 6 Iowa, No. 7 Washington, No. 8 East Tennessee State, No. 9 Utah, No. 10 Oregon, No. 11 Mississippi State, No. 12 Long Beach State, No. 13 Denver and No. 14 Sacramento State.
Additionally five individuals were selected in Carson Lundell (BYU), Matt McCarty (Santa Clara), Jack Trent (UNLV), Jake Vincent (Southern Utah) and Gabe Lysen (Utah Valley).
This is the 25th NCAA Regional Appearance for the Huskies in program history and the Dawgs will look to claim their fourth regional title.
In this COVID shortened season which saw the Huskies only compete during the spring, Washington put together a strong campaign finishing in the top four in each of the last five events of the season. The Huskies most recently placed fourth at the Pac-12 Championships for their highest showing since 2017. Prior to that UW finished fourth at the Western Intercollegiate, second at the Seattle U Redhawk Invitational, fourth at the Goodwin and the Duck Invitational and third at the Lampkin Grips SD Classic. Individually, Washington saw its three seniors, Noah Woolsey, Jan Schneider and Henry Lee, all post at least two top 10 finishes with all three also recording at least one top three effort.
The six regional sites include Seminole Legacy Golf Club, Tallahassee, Fla., hosted by Florida State; The Championship Course, Albuquerque, N.M., hosted by University of New Mexico; Golf Club of Tennessee, Kingston Springs, Tennessee, hosted by Vanderbilt University; Sagamore Golf Club, Noblesville, Ind., hosted by Ball State University; Karsten Creek Golf Course, Stillwater, Okla., hosted by Oklahoma State University and Tumble Creek Golf Club, Cle Elum, Wash., hosted by University of Washington.