Johnson, Fillmore to Compete at NCAA Regionals

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two BYU golfers have been selected to compete at the 2009 NCAA West Regionals May 14-16 at the Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif.

Juniors Brady Johnson and Robbie Fillmore will represent BYU as individual golfers as the team fell just short of qualifying for a spot.

“We had our good moments this year, but just didn’t play well enough at some of our tournaments to qualify,” said head coach Bruce Brockbank. “We hope for the best from Robbie and Brady and that they will represent themselves and our program well at regionals.”

Six 54-hole regional tournaments will be conducted. Thirteen teams and ten individuals not on those teams will compete at each of three regionals, while the other three regionals will have 14 teams and five individuals not on those teams. The lowest five teams and lowest individual from each regional will advance to the NCAA Finals May 26-30 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

“They’re kind of a lump on a log out there and it’s harder to advance to finals, but if they play like we know they can, they’ll have a shot,” Brockbank said. “It will be a good experience for them and a neat thing to be a part of. Lake Merced is a difficult course and will be a challenge for everyone.”

Johnson was recently named All-Conference after leading BYU with a 72.85 stroke average, which ranked 13th among all MWC golfers. The Mill Bay, British Columbia native is coming off a strong year in which he finished in the Top 10 at three different tournaments and had one other Top 20 performance.

He came in seventh place at the Baylor Intercollegiate at 3-over-par after posting a fall season round-low 69 in the second round, following up with a ninth-place finish at the Pacific Invitational.

Brady scored collegiate career-low rounds of 68 in the opening rounds of the John A. Burns Invitational and the USC Intercollegiate, along with the first and third rounds of the Cougar Classic. At the USC tourney, he finished in fifth place overall at 4-under-par. His best finish of the year came at the Cougar Classic with a second-place performance at 10-under-par, helping the team to its first victory of the year.

Fillmore, a junior from Salt Lake City, had the team’s second-best stroke average and also enjoyed a strong season in which he led the Cougars in three of four fall tournaments by placing 20th at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, third at the Husky Invitational and ninth at the Pacific Invitational. He scored round lows of 70 in the first and third rounds of the Husky Invitational and second round of the Pacific Invitational.

In the spring tournaments, Fillmore had strong performances at the USC Intercollegiate where he placed tenth overall at even-par and 14th overall at the Fresno Lexus Classic at 2-over-par. He came in 16th at the PING Cougar Classic at 1-under-par and then tied for 7th overall at the MWC Championship in Tuscon.

New Mexico and San Diego State will compete as teams at the West regional with Johnson and Fillmore. Colorado State will play in New Jersey, while UNLV will compete in Austin, Tex. TCU will play in Stillwater, Okla., where Air Force’s Tom Whitney will compete as an individual.

NCAA West Regional
Lake Merced Golf Club - Daly City, Calif.
Hosted by the University of San Francisco
Teams
1  USC
2  Texas A&M
3  Arizona State
4  San Diego State
5  UC Davis
6  Oregon
7  New Mexico
8  Colorado
9  UC Irvine
10 Kansas State
11 Oregon State
12 San Diego
13 San Francisco
Individuals
1  Grant Doverspike, Fresno State
2  Brady Johnson, BYU
3  Nick Delio, CS Northridge
4  Scott Smith, Nevada
5  Geoff Gonzalez, Cal Poly
6  Robbie Fillmore, BYU
7  Mark Hubbard, San Jose State
8  Kevin Tucker, Washington State
9  Bhavik Patel, Fresno State
10 Greg Moss, Loyola Marymount