The Kansas men’s golf team made it to an NCAA regional nine times in Ross Randall’s final 10 seasons of a 27-year career as head coach, a stretch that included eight consecutive appearances (1998-2005). Upon Randall’s retirement after the 2007 season, KU experienced an eight-year drought and is in the midst of a revival under sixth-year coach Jamie Bermel.
The Jayhawks are playing in an NCAA Regional for the third consecutive year, this time the Pacific Regional in Stockton.
If KU can finish in the top five, it will advance to the NCAA Finals for the first time since 2000. Off to a good start, the Jayhawks were in second at the beginning of the second of three days of competition.
Kansas is seeking its sixth appearance in the NCAA Championships.
A look at some details of the first five:
Year | Place in NCAA Championships |
Top Individual at regional |
Top individual at championships |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | 22 | John Ogden/ John Sinovic | Sean Thayer MC/148 |
1993 | 15 | Matt Gogel | Matt Gogel (T-34) |
1996 | 15 | Dan Rooney | Slade Adams (T-21) |
1999 | 22 | Chris Thompson | Ryan Vermeer (T-23) |
2000 | 21 | Conrad Roberts | Ryan Vermeer (T-30) |
Live scoring is available at [golfstat.com.][1] It offers a hole-by-hole scorecard for each player. A quick check of it this morning revealed that Daniel Sutton had carded an early bogey, Andy Spencer an early birdie, drawing them into a tie for fourth place in the individual standings. Shortly after that, KU had pulled within a stroke of first-place Iowa State in the team standings, thanks to consecutive birdies from Harry Hillier.
Warning: Tracking golfers via live scoring can be very addictive.
[1]: http://golfstat.com/
2:08 p.m. update: Kansas is in first place in the team standings, one stroke ahead of Alabama, the nation’s No. 7-ranked team.
2:12 p.m. update: Kansas has fallen two strokes behind Alabama.
2:19 p.m. update: The Jayhawks have drawn within one stroke of Alabama.
2:32 p.m. update: KU and the Crimson Tide are tied for first at 14-under.
2:48 p.m. update: Kansas has fallen into second-place tie with Iowa State at 13-under, one stroke behind Alabama.
2:56 p.m. update: Kansas has dropped into third place, one stroke behind co-leaders at 14-under Alabama and Iowa State.
3:09 p.m. update: The top four scores from the five golfers competing for each team count, so after two days, that’s eight rounds per team, a lot of room for separation, yet somehow the team scores are almost always so close. That always blows me away.
Alabama and Iowa State are atop the team leaderboard with 562 strokes (14-under) and Kansas is third with 563 (13-under). The rest of the schools still have golfers on the course. At the moment, Stanford stands four at 8-under, TCU fifth at 7-under.