Murray State University Athletics
Racers Prep For NCAA Golf Challenge
5/18/2010 2:00:00 PM | Men's Golf
The Murray State Men's Golf team is set to play in the NCAA Golf Tournament when they compete in the Notre Dame Region in Notre Dame, Ind., Thursday through Saturday.
The Racers appearance in the NCAA Tournament brings together a great story of a program that was very close to breaking through in the last two seasons before doing so in 2010, and an award winning course and outstanding field of competing teams.
How Did MSU Get Here?
The Racers are in the NCAA Tournament after posting their first Ohio Valley Conference Championship since 1991 when they won the title in Dickson, Tenn., April 28 at GreyStone GC.
MSU's performance in the OVC Tournament was nothing less than impressive as they led by eight shots after round one and pushed it to 12 shots after 36 holes before winning by 18 shots.
Add to it, the Racers' wins in the two events prior, The Tennessee State Big Blue Intercollegiate (April 6) and the Kentucky Bluegrass Invitational (April 11), and the team has plenty of confidence coming into the NCAA event.
"I think with the kind of run our team has had in the last month, they can't help but be confident going into the NCAA Tournament," MSU Head Coach Eddie Hunt. "Our team has played against some good teams this season and they know they'll be up against some good teams at Notre Dame."
This is the third NCAA appearance for the Racers following 1987 and 1991 under legendary coach Buddy Hewitt.
The Racers' Edge - Experience
MSU has three seniors, one junior and a freshman making up their starting five.
Chris Griffin, Nick Newcomb and Jared Wolfe are in their final season, while Cameron Carrico is a junior. Patrick Newcomb is a freshman and the brother of Nick.
The group led the OVC with a 291.4 scoring average and produced 13 top-5 finishes and 18 top-10 finishes in 12 events in the 2009-10 season.
Nick Newcomb was the OVC scoring leader (72.3), Carrico was third (72.8), Wolfe seventh (73.6) and Griffin eighth (73.9). Patrick Newcomb was the third-best freshman at 75.3 per round. All five earned All-OVC honors, while Nick Newcomb was the OVC medalist for the second time in three seasons and Wolfe and Griffin finished second and third at the OVC final.
Racer Rankings
MSU's Nick Newcomb ranks fourth in NCAA D-I with a 3.01 average in par-3 scoring, while Chris Griffin is fifth in pars per round with 12.18. Jared Wolfe is 27th in total birdies with 121, while Cameron Carrico is 89th in total eagles with four. There are 3,234 players in NCAA D-I.
Of the 1,053 schools in NCAA D-I, the Racers are 35th with 481 total birdies and rank 46th in final round average individual score with 73.7.
Notre Dame Regional Seeding
The Racers are the 12th seed of the 14 teams in the region and will play the first round with 10th seed Indiana and 11th seed Virginia Tech.
Stanford is the No. 1 seed, followed by Florida, Florida State, Duke, LSU, NC State, Iowa, Michigan and Northwestern in the top nine teams. Detroit is the No. 13 seed, while St. Francis is the No. 14 seed.
When the dust clears on Saturday, the top-5 teams from each of the six regions will advance to the NCAA finals June 1-6, at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Murray State is the 124th ranked team according to the GolfWeek Power Rankings, while Indiana is 66th and Virginia Tech is 61st. Stanford is ranked third in the nation, while Florida (6), Florida State (19), Duke (24), LSU (30), North Carolina State (40), Iowa (48), Michigan (49) and Northwestern (50) are all in the top-50.
Individually, MSU senior Nick Newcomb and junior Cameron Carrico are ranked 387th and 538th according to GolfWeek.
The highest rated players in the field are: Stanford's David Chung (13), Tyson Alexander, Florida (24), Tim McKenney, Florida (36), Brooks Koepka, Florida State (41), Steve Kiegler, Stanford (43), Andrew Loupe, LSU (45) and Matt Hill, North Carolina State (55).
The MSU team will be seeing Indiana's Alex Martin (111) and David Erdy (195), Chase Wright (304) and Tech's Mikey Moyers (174), Marshall Bailey (230), Garland Green (358) and Blake Redmond, Virginia Tech (449).
"We're excited to be in the NCAA Tournament and to be competing with the best in the nation," Hunt said. "But we have to take care of our own business and play our game and I believe we'll do that."
| Seed | School | Conference |
| 1 | Stanford | Pacific-10 |
| 2 | Florida | Southeastern |
| 3 | Florida State | Atlantic Coast |
| 4 | Duke | Atlantic Coast |
| 5 | LSU | Southeastern |
| 6 | NC State | Atlantic Coast |
| 7 | Iowa | Big-10 |
| 8 | Michigan | Big-10 |
| 9 | Northwestern | Big-10 |
| 10 | Indiana | Big-10 |
| 11 | Virginia Tech | Atlantic Coast |
| 12 | Murray State | Ohio Valley |
| 13 | Detroit | Horizon |
| 14 | St. Francis (PA) | Northeast |
Tee Times & Schedule
The Racers play their practice round as a group of five starting at the 10th tee Wednesday at 8:50 a.m. Eastern Time.
Thursday's tee times have the Racers starting on the 10th hole with Patrick Newcomb as the first MSU player off the 9:10 a.m. ET. Chris Griffin has the 9:20 a.m. tee time, with Jared Wolfe at 9:30 a.m., Cameron Carrico at 9:40 a.m. and Nick Newcomb at 9:50 a.m.
Tee times for Friday's second round will be determined by first round scores.
The Warren Golf Course
The Warren GC is a Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore design and the home of Notre Dame University's men's and women's teams. The course is young, having opened in 2000, but it has received notice of being one of the best. Golf Digest had the Warren GC on its list of Best New Courses when it opened and GolfWeek named it the No. 2 best course in Indiana in 2008.
Two days before the Racers play their practice round, a USGA U.S. Men's Open Qualifier will be staged and the course will also host the USGA Women's Pub-Links Amateur this summer.
For the NCAA, Warren GC will play to a par-70 and 7,020 yards. The only par-five holes are the 5th and 17th, which means there will be some lengthy par four holes, like the 6th which will play 476 yards and the 10th at 495 yards. The shortest hole will be the 4th, a par-3 at 143 yards.
"The Warren course looks like it has been there for much longer," Hunt said. "It will be a challenge, but we'll know more about how to play it once we get there and go through our practice round."
