The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Golf preview: NCAA Championship
05.28.2007 | Men's Golf
WHAT: No. 27 Texas, the ninth-place finisher at the NCAA Central Regional, will make its 57th team appearance at the NCAA Championship.
WHO: Texas will join 29 teams to determine the 2007 team and individual champions.
WHERE: Golden Horseshoe Golf Club - Williamsburg, Va.; par 70, 6,803 yards
WHEN: Wednesday, May 30 through Saturday, June 2
TEXAS STARTERS: Texas coach John Fields will start seniors Jhonattan Vegas and Matt Bortis, redshirt freshman Charlie Holland, freshman Lance Lopez and junior Jace Moore.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
Texas is making its 57th appearance as a team in the NCAA Golf Championship. The Longhorns captured NCAA team titles in 1971 and 1972 behind the steady play of future PGA Tour veterans Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. Crenshaw claimed NCAA individual championships from 1971-73 and shared the '72 title with Kite. Ed White won Texas' first NCAA individual title in 1935. Justin Leonard, a member of the United States Ryder Cup teams in 1997 and 1999, claimed NCAA medalist honors in 1994.
UT TAKES NINTH AT NCAA CENTRAL REGIONAL TO EARN NCAA BERTH
No. 27 Texas earned a berth in the NCAA Championship after finishing strong on the back nine in the final round at the NCAA Central Regional Championship at the par 72, 7,214-yard gold/silver course at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill.
With 10 NCAA Championships bids up for grabs, Texas claimed its NCAA berth by finishing ninth in the 27-team event with a three-day stroke total of 916 at 52-over par.
Although Texas carded its highest round of the tournament with a 23-over 311 over the final 18 holes, the Longhorns nailed down their berth in the NCAA Championship by rebounding from a rough showing on the front nine and limiting their mistakes on the back nine.
Texas dropped 18 bogeys on the front nine but lowered that total to 10 on the back nine, as UT reduced its stroke average from 41.0 on the front nine to 37.6 on the back nine. The Longhorns shot even par on 27 holes on the back nine, an increase from 17 on the front nine.
Freshman Lance Lopez led the charge for the Longhorns by limiting his errors on the back nine. Lopez shot a 39 on the front nine but sank birdies on two of his first three holes on the back nine. Lopez bogeyed only one hole the rest of the way, ending the final round with a two-over 74 to finish in a tie for 21st place.
Redshirt freshman Charlie Holland, like Lopez, started sluggishly before finishing strong. Holland opened with a 41 on the front nine but got off to a good start on the back nine with birdies on the 10th and 11th holes. Holland later added another birdie to end the round and made a crucial save on the 18th hole after landing his tee shot in a shallow creek. Holland made bogey at the final hole to keep the Longhorns in contention for a NCAA berth. He finished the round with a seven-over 79 and landed in a tie for 21st place at 10-over par.
TEXAS TAKES ISLEWORTH COLLEGIATE
Texas shot a collective nine-over par to score its first tournament victory in two seasons last October at the 18-team Isleworth Collegiate Invitational at the Isleworth Country Club. The Longhorns ran away with a 12-stroke victory over second-place Florida to capture the event, which featured three of the last four NCAA team champions and nine of the top-15 finishers from the 2006 NCAA Championship.
At 12 strokes, Texas recorded the largest victory margin in the tournament's three-year history en route to its first win since the 2004 Big 12 Championship. Georgia, the 2004 and 2005 Isleworth Collegiate champion, recorded winning margins of 10 strokes and seven strokes, respectively. The Longhorns claimed the victory despite entering the event as the lowest-ranked team (Golfweek No. 57) in the field at the time.
The Longhorns blew past the field on the strength of three top-10 individual finishes, marking the first time Texas accomplished such a feat since the 2006 Big 12 Championship when UT landed medalist Matt Rosenfeld, Jeff Bell and Matt Mills in the top ten.
Senior Matt Bortis, an Arkansas transfer, carded a one-under 71 in the final round to finish in a tie for fourth place. Junior Kevin Schultz managed a four-over 76 in the final round but placed in a tie for sixth after carding a four-under 68 in the second round. Senior Jhonattan Vegas carded a three-over 75 to finish the tournament in a tie for 10th place, marking his top individual finish of the fall.
TEXAS SCORES SECOND VICTORY AT ALOHA PURDUE COLLEGIATE
Trailing by three strokes heading into the final round of the Aloha Purdue Collegiate Invitational last November, Texas scored the single-best round of the tournament with a collective three-under 277 to finish at seven-over in the 54-hole event and defeat second-place Michigan by six strokes. Notably, Texas soundly defeated then-No. 1 Alabama and No. 8 Clemson, among six other teams, en route to its second consecutive tournament victory after winning the Isleworth in October.
The Longhorns landed two student-athletes in the top five in senior Farren Keenan and freshman Lance Lopez. After shooting his first two rounds in the 60s, Keenan ended the tournament with a two-over 72 but still finished at one under for the tournament in a tie for fifth place. Lopez shot a one-under 69 in the final round to also finish at one under in a tie for fifth.
FRESHMAN LOPEZ MAKING IMPACT
Freshman Lance Lopez has been an integral part of the Longhorns' success throughout the 2006-07 season. Tied for the team lead in tournament starts with 10, the Missouri City, Texas, native led Texas with a pair of top-five finishes this season.
Lopez made his presence known right away, as he scored the top finish for Texas at the season-opening Carpet Capital Collegiate in Rocky Face, Ga. Lopez produced incredible results at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate last October, but an inadvertent error cost him a shot at medalist honors, as he signed an incorrect scorecard after the event's opening round. Lopez regrouped and shot rounds of 69 and 65 to finish at eight-under par, though he did not place in the event due to the disqualification after the first round.
Lopez recorded his first career top-20 finish when he helped the Longhorns to victory at the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational. Lopez tied for 19th place by shooting six-over par for the tournament.
He excelled at the Aloha Purdue Collegiate, where he helped the Longhorns to victory once more with a tie for fifth place at one-under par. Lopez added his second top-five finish of the season at UT's Morris Williams Intercollegiate, where he posted a career-best fourth-place finish at four-under par.
