The Kansas men’s golf team is headed to its eighth straight NCAA regional.
KU was selected Wednesday afternoon as the No. 11 seed in the Rancho Santa Fe regional, in which it will take on 13 other schools at The Farms Golf Club just north of San Diego from May 13-15.
The top five schools, along with the best individual scorer not included on those teams, will make it to the NCAA Championship on May 24-29 — also in the San Diego area at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California.
Last season, regional competition brought plenty of intrigue for the Jayhawks, as Will King, then a freshman, was tied with Ole Miss’ Hugo Townsend as the top individual but managed to emerge from an eight-hole playoff to qualify for the NCAA Championship. There, he finished tied for 55th in the field of 165th golfers.
This year, the 2023-24 campaign opened with a bang for the Jayhawks when senior Cecil Belisle won his first event at KU at the Folds of Honor Collegiate in Grand Haven, Michigan, back in September. That was soon followed by another title, this time for King, who led the Jayhawks to a third-place showing at the Gopher Invitational in Minnesota.
The spring season saw continued success for Belisle, particularly at The Prestige in California when he shot a 13-under 200 to equal the best 54-hole showing in KU history, prompting head coach Jamie Bermel to say in a press release, “The kid works as hard as anyone I have coached in 32 years, and he deserves to be the champion.” The Jayhawks as a whole shot 21-under at the event, and Belisle was the Big 12 Conference men’s golfer of the month for February.
KU had trouble with teamwide consistency at some events in March heading into early April. After the Jayhawks finished eighth at the Big 12 Championship with an 11-over team score, Bermel took a pessimistic tone in a release after the event: “”We are not sure of what is next. I thought we were on the outside looking in but that is out of our hands … Maybe we get in and have another opportunity this year to represent the crimson and blue.”
That is precisely what they will get.
“We were outside of the number going into conference, and even going into the last round,” Bermel said in a release Wednesday. “We were the last regional (revealed) and one of the last two teams picked, but all you have to do is get in. The guys were fired up when our name was announced and now it’s time to get to work. It is the expectation at KU that we play golf in May. Hats off to the guys, we had a pretty good year, but the best is yet to come.”
The rest of the Rancho Santa Fe regional includes, from highest to lowest seeding, Arizona State, Washington, Oklahoma, California, Oklahoma State, North Florida, Chattanooga, South Florida, San Diego (the host), West Virginia, Wright State, Seton Hall and Winthrop.
The KU women’s golf team previously learned that it too will participate in regional competition, in its case at Tumble Creek Golf Club in Cle Elum, Washington, beginning Monday.