Gamecocks start NCAA Regionals Monday

BRYAN, Texas — South Carolina men’s golf opens play at the 2018 NCAA Bryan Regional on Monday morning. The Gamecocks, who are making their 11th NCAA Regional appearance in the past 12 seasons, will be paired with San Francisco and Georgia in the first round, teeing off at 9:25 a.m. ET on hole one.

Carolina will be using the same five-man lineup of senior Keenan Huskey, junior Scott Stevens, junior Will Miles, senior Ben Dietrich and freshman Andrew Spiegler as the SEC Championship. It marks the first time Carolina has used the same lineup in consecutive tournaments since the Camden Collegiate Invitational and the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic in the fall.

Huskey and Stevens, who have started every tournament the past two seasons, will each be making their third career NCAA Regional appearances, while Miles and Dietrich will each be making their second. Huskey, an All-American last season, notched a top-10 finish in his first postseason appearance at the 2016 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional as a sophomore. Stevens finished T-30th that season, shooting 70 (-2) in the final round to help the Gamecocks punch their ticket to the NCAA Championship with a runner-up finish in the team standings.

Miles and Dietrich have each had some postseason success as well, as Miles led the team with a T-15th at the NCAA West Lafayette Regional last season. Dietrich finished T-22nd at the 2014 NCAA Eugene Regional as a freshman.

FROM THE COACH

“We are looking forward to our trip to College Station, and we’ll have to play well to advance through a tough NCAA Regional field. It’s always an exciting time of the year for our sport, and our guys are focused and ready to compete. The reward for the hard work this season is that we now have a great opportunity to compete for a championship. It just doesn’t get any better than that.” — head coach Bill McDonald

HISTORY AT NCAA REGIONALS

The Gamecocks will be making their 26th all-time appearance at NCAA Regionals since 1988, and their 11th trip in 12 seasons under head coach Bill McDonald. Carolina will be seeking its first appearance back at nationals since a program-record four-straight trips from 2013-16. McDonald helped lead South Carolina to its highest finish ever at the NCAA Championship in 2016, as the team advanced to match play for the first time in program history and finished T-5th. The Gamecocks have advanced to the NCAA Championship six times in 10 previous regional appearances under McDonald.

Serving as the interim head coach, McDonald led Carolina to the 2007 NCAA West Regional Title, the program’s first and only regional championship. Three-time All-American Kyle Thompson, who is currently playing on the PGA TOUR, earned individual medalist honors at NCAA Regionals two times (1999, 2001). Fellow three-time All-American Matt NeSmith came close to joining Thompson as the program’s only individual regional champions in 2016, earning runner-up medalist honors at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional.

BRYAN REGIONAL FIELD

All 14 teams in the SEC, the nation’s premier college golf conference, are in the NCAA Regional field, a first for the conference. Five of those teams, top-seeded Texas A&M, No. 4 seed Kentucky, No. 6 seed Ole Miss, No. 9 seed Georgia and No. 10 seed Mississippi State, will be playing alongside Carolina this week at the Traditions Club. No. 11 Baylor and No. 14 Clemson join the second ranked Aggies and 23rd ranked Wildcats as the top-25 teams in the field based off the latest Golfstat Team Rankings. Five more teams, including the Gamecocks (No. 38) are ranked in the top-50 of the latest poll, released on May 2, 2018.

UP NEXT

The top-five teams at the NCAA Bryan Regional will advance to the NCAA Championship May 25-30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. The Gamecocks will be seeking their 21st all-time appearance and the program’s fifth in the past six seasons. Carolina made a program-record four-straight trips from 2013-16, with its first NCAA Match Play appearance and highest finish ever (T-5th) at the 2016 NCAA Championship in Eugene, Ore.

Gamecocks Athletics contributed to this post.