The University of Georgia men's golf team will begin its quest for its third national championship on May 13-15 at the NCAA Austin Regional, according to an announcement made Wednesday afternoon on the Golf Channel.
The Bulldogs will be the No. 4 seed for the Regional, which will be held at the University of Texas Golf Club, home of the Texas men’s and women’s golf programs. Joining the Bulldogs are No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Arkansas, host No. 3 Texas, No. 5 Wake Forest, No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 7 UNC-Greensboro, No. 8 BYU, No. 9 Utah, No. 10 San Jose State, No. 11 Grand Canyon, No. 12 Arkansas State and No. 13 Kansas City.
The top five teams from each of the five regionals will advance to the 30-team NCAA Championships at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. from May 24-29. The lowest-scoring individual whose team does not advance will also earn a spot in the NCAA Championships to compete individually.
The other four regionals will take place at the University Club in Baton Rouge, La.; the UNC Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, N.C.; The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif. and the Brick Boilermaker Golf Course in West Lafayette, Ind. The one seeds in those regionals were the top overall seed Auburn, North Carolina, Arizona State, Florida State and Vanderbilt respectively.
"We’ve only played there in a tournament once, but we won it, so we’ve got good vibes as we prepare to head to Austin,” said head coach Chris Haack. "It’s a great golf course – long, demanding and requires us to play really solid. We’ve put in the hard work this year and we’re excited to compete. It's an incredibly strong field, and we will need to be at our best once we get out there."
The Bulldogs were invited to a Regional for the 28th straight year and for the 34th time in 35 seasons (missing in 1995 and excluding 2020 as the postseason was canceled) since the format was introduced in 1988-89. The Bulldogs have advanced from the Regional to the NCAAs 25 times.
The program is headed to its 27th Regional under Haack and has moved onto the NCAAs 22 times under his leadership. Haack led the Bulldogs to the 1999 and 2005 national titles, to runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2011, and the national semifinals in 2015. Most recently, Georgia won the NCAA Bath Regional in 2023 led by Ben van Wyk’s first-place finish before finishing in 14th at the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Georgia most recently finished in the quarterfinals of match play at the SEC Championships in St Simons Island last week, falling to Arkansas by a 3-2 result. Graduates Connor Creasy and van Wyk, senior Caleb Manuel, junior Buck Brumlow and freshman Camden Smith comprised the Bulldogs’ lineup with graduate Beck Burnette serving as the team’s alternate.
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