CORVALLIS, Ore.--BYU's final round 13-over-par wasn't enough to advance them into the NCAA finals for the first time in three years as the Cougars' season ended with a 17th place finish at the NCAA West Regionals.
BYU has advanced to the NCAA finals each of the last two years earning top three finishes both years. Coming into the tournament ranked 12th in the nation, BYU had a good chance to earn a third consecutive birth to the finals. A mixture of poor play by its top players and playing a course that negated BYU's strong long-ball skills caused the Cougars to miss out on the opportunity to advance.
"This course doesn't play to our team's strengths and we had a hard time adjusting to that," BYU senior Scott Miller said. "We played our hearts out, but we just didn't accomplish what we needed to this week."
Several other top 20 teams failed to advance including No. 5 Texas, No. 6 USC, No. 7 TCU, No. 13 New Mexico, and No. 20 Northwestern. A number of surprise teams such as UC Irvine, Pacific and Oregon State turned great performances at the NCAA West Regional despite mediocre seasons. Ironically, BYU had a winning head-to-head record with the majority of the teams who advanced to the finals.
"The results of this tournament tell you the depth of college golf these days," BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "There isn't a lot that separates the top 30 to 40 teams. On any given day one team can take better advantage of the golf course than another and win."
Miller, in his final tournament for BYU, led the Cougars on the final day shooting two-over-par. He was joined by fellow seniors Jesse Hibler and Billy Harvey, who shot final rounds 76 and 75 respectively. Juniors Manuel Merizalde and Kyle Wight both finished the season shooting a pair of 76s.
"We've had a great season and it is tough to see our success run at the NCAA Regionals come to an end," Brockbank said. "It's hard to say goodbye to a great group of seniors, but we have a new group coming in next year that will keep up the tradition of great golf at BYU.
The No. 6 Arizona State Sun Devils concludedtheir wire-to-wire run Saturday to capture the NCAA West Regional Men's Golf Championships at the Trysting Tree Golf Club. Arizona State finished at 12-under-par 852, 15 shots better than second place Arizona.
Kyle Thompson of South Carolina and Matt Jones of ASU shared medalist honors, finishing at 8-under 208. Thompson shot a final round 2-under 70, while Jones carded a 73. A total of 11 players finished under par for the tournament. The best score of the final round was a 68 turned in by Troy McKinley of Pacific, he finished tied for 15th at 218.
FINAL ROUND SCORES1 Arizona State U. 283 277 292 852 -12
2 Arizona, U. of 289 289 289 867 +3
3 UC-Irvine 290 287 294 871 +7
4 Pacific, U. of the 298 293 281 872 +8
5 South Carolina 294 298 288 880 +16
6 Oregon State U. 290 301 290 881 +17
Stanford University 284 303 294 881 +17
UCLA 289 298 294 881 +17
9 Wake Forest Univ. 288 302 292 882 +18
10 Washington, U. of 290 301 292 883 +19
11 UNLV 294 300 292 886 +22
12 Southern California 298 300 289 887 +23
San Diego State U. 289 305 293 887 +23
14 Pepperdine Univ. 293 299 298 890 +26
15 Fresno State Univ. 298 301 297 896 +32
16 California, U. of 302 302 295 899 +35
17 Colorado State Univ. 297 300 304 901 +37
18 Oregon, U. of 302 294 306 902 +38
19 Brigham Young Univ. 296 307 301 904 +40
New Mexico, U. of 305 299 300 904 +40
21 Tennessee, Univ. of 297 316 301 914 +50
22 Nevada, Univ. of 302 307 306 915 +51
24 Detroit Mercy, U. of 295 326 313 934 +70
25 Navy 310 311 314 935 +71
26 Oral Roberts Univ. 312 309 316 937 +73
27 Weber State Univ. 302 324 317 943 +79
27 Weber State Univ. +50 F 324
BYU INDIVIDUAL SCORES
T 49 Jesse Hibler 75 73 76 224
T 67 Billy Harvey 76 75 75 226
T 96 Manuel Merizalde 78 76 76 230
T101 Kyle Wight 72 83 76 231
116 Scott Miller
CORVALLIS, Ore.--Fresh off a Mountain West Conference Championship, BYU's 12th ranked men's golf team gears up to take on the best in the West at the NCAA West Regional Golf tournament Thursday through Saturday at Trysting Tree Golf Course.
The Cougars are one of 27 teams invited to earn their way into the National Championships later this month in Durham, North Carolina. In a bit of controversy, BYU enters as the no. 5 seed and the no. 2 seed in District VII behind New Mexico, a team BYU defeated in the conference championships. According to the latest MastCard Collegiate Golf Rankings BYU is the third highest ranked team in the West behind no. 4 Arizona State and no. 6 USC, but ahead of both no. 13 New Mexico and No. 14 Arizona.
"We were unfairly seeded behind New Mexico," BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "Head-to-head we are 3-2 against New Mexico and we beat them in every other statistical category. I just don't understand why the NCAA committee would seed them in front of us."
With the No. 5 seed BYU will tee off in the second threesome with Arizona and San Diego State. Tee times for the Cougars begin at 11:50 a.m. PST on Thursday and 7:50 a.m. PST on Friday. Saturday's Tee times will be determined according to standing in the tournament.
The Cougars have been very successful the last few years at the NCAA West Regional. Last year they led the field the first two days before slipping the last nine holes and finishing second to Arizona. In 1999 BYU finished third at regionals and went on to a seventh-place finish in the championship tournament. Since the NCAA regional format began in 1991, BYU has earned a birth to the championships four times.
To advance to the championships BYU must finish in the top 10. With 14 of the nation's top 40 teams playing in this tournament, the Cougars must play solid to advance.
"In this kind of tournament anyone of these teams can rise to the challenge and qualify," Brockbank said. "We've work hard all year for this opportunity, now its time to play our way in to the finals."
Leading BYU into the regional tournament are three outstanding senior golfers--All-American Billy Harvey, Scott Miller and Jesse Hibler. Harvey, who leads the team in stroke average (72.3) and was recently named first team All-MWC looks to make a splash in his fourth and final NCAA West Regional. Miller, son of legendary golf Johnny Miller, is the holds the highest individual ranking on the team at no. 42 by the MasterCard Collegiate Individual Golf Rankings. He finished in third place at the conference championships and has earned two top five finishes in the last three tournaments. Hibler is playing the best golf of his career as of late. He was two strokes away from winning the conference championship and has two top 10 finishes in the last two tournaments.
Another major force on this year's Cougar squad is Manuel Merizalde, who is ranked no. 46 by the MasterCard Collegiate individual rankings. Junior Kyle Wight is also playing well for the Cougars and was a big part in helping BYU win the conference championship.
The NCAA Championships will be conducted May 30 to June 2 at the Duke University Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina. Duke University is the host institution for this year's championships. Three regional tournaments, encompassing the current nine districts, will be conducted May 17-19. A total of 421 participants have been selected for the regional competition with 156 of these players advancing to the championships finals.
WEST REGIONAL
May 17-19
Trysting Tree Golf Club, Corvallis, Ore.
TEAMS
District 3 South
1. South Carolina
District 3 North
1. Wake Forest
District 7
1. New Mexico
2. Brigham Young
3. San Diego State
4. Colorado State
5. Fresno State
6. Nevada
District 8
1. Arizona State
2. Southern California
3. Arizona
4. UNLV
5. Oregon
6. Pepperdine
7. Washington
8. California
9. UCLA
10. Stanford
11. Oregon State
12. Pacific (California)
Additional Participants
1. Tennessee
2. Navy (Patriot League)
3. Oral Roberts
4. Austin Peay State
5. UC Irvine
6. Detroit
7. Weber State
INDIVIDUALS
District 7
1. Scott Carlyle - Hawaii
2. David Hearn - Wyoming
3. Eric Billinger - Denver
District 8
1. Jeff Wood - UC Santa Barbara
2. John Mallinger - Long Beach State
3. Ryan Hanratty - Washington State
Current MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings (May 13, 2000)
1 Georgia
2 Georgia Tech
3 Clemson
4 Arizona State
5 Texas
6 Southern California
7 TCU
8 North Carolina State
9 Florida
10 Wake Forest
11 Augusta State
12 Brigham Young
13 New Mexico
14 Arizona
15 Oklahoma State
16 Oklahoma
17 South Carolina
18 East Tennessee State
19 Houston
20 Duke
21 Northwestern
22 Oregon
23 Virginia Tech
24 Washington
25 San Diego State
26 Auburn
27 UNLV
28 Alabama-Birmingham
29 Pepperdine
30 Charleston
31 Louisiana State
32 North Carolina
33 UCLA
34 Kansas
35 Minnesota
36 Stanford
37 Alabama
38 Tulsa
39 California
40 Tennessee
41 Mississippi
42 Southern Methodist
43 Colorado
44 North Florida
45 Baylor
46 Colorado State
47 Georgia State
48 Georgia Southern
49 Virginia
50 Southeastern Louisiana
BYU Individual Rankings by MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings
42 Scott Miller SR Brigham Young Univ. 115.080
46 Manuel Merizalde JR Brigham Young Univ. 106.900
72 Billy Harvey SR Brigham Young Univ. 65.578
Current BYU Individual Stroke Averages
Billy Harvey 72.3
Manuel Merizalde 73.1
Jesse Hibler 73.8
Scott Miller 73.97
Kyle Wight 74.93
Ollie Nissenen 77.3
Jared Overton 77.33
Chris Graham 79
Berg Crawford 79.6
