The Georgia men’s golf team will begin its quest for another national championship May 13-15 in the NCAA Regional at the UGA Golf Course where the Bulldogs will be joined by 12 additional squads.
Late Wednesday, the field for the NCAA Athens Regional was announced, along with the fields for the other five regionals.
The top five schools advancing from each regional will make up the 30-team field for the NCAA Championships, which will be held May 24-29 at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. Eighty-one teams and 45 individuals were chosen for the regionals.
The Bulldogs are seeded third in the Athens Regional. Joining the Bulldogs in Athens will be No. 1 seed Vanderbilt, No. 2 seed Duke, No. 4 seed Liberty, No. 5 seed Alabama, No. 6 seed Tennessee, No. 7 seed Campbell, No. 8 seed Kentucky, No. 9 seed Nevada, No. 10 seed SMU, No. 11 seed Memphis, No. 12 seed UNC-Wilmington, and No. 13 seed Princeton. Campbell, Memphis, UNC-Wilmington, and Princeton were automatic qualifiers as conference champions.
“We are proud to be be hosting the Athens Regional and we’re excited about having such a quality field join us,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “As always, we will have to be at our best to be one of the advancing teams. We all know what’s at stake, so we’ll get dialed in and hopefully take advantage of the opportunity we have to begin the NCAAs at home.”
There also will be 10 individuals making the trek to Athens — Roland Massimino, Kansas State; Jacob Eklund, Kansas State; Eduardo Carrete, Jacksonville; Keller Harper, Furman; Jeremy Gandon, Kansas State; Billy Tom Sargent, Western Kentucky; Logan Sowell, College of Charleston; John Gough, Charlotte; Jordan Warnock, South Carolina Upstate; and Will Halamandaris, Lafayette.
The Bulldogs were invited to an NCAA Regional for the 24th straight year and for the 30th time in 31 seasons since the format was introduced in 1988-89. The Bulldogs have advanced from the Regional to the NCAAs 21 times. The Bulldogs have been invited to an NCAA Regional in all 23 of Haack’s seasons and have moved onto the NCAAs in 18 of the previous 22 campaigns. Haack led the Bulldogs to the 1999 and 2005 national titles, to runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2011, and to the national semifinals in 2015.
The five other Regional sites are Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman, Wash.; Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif.; TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet, S.C.; University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Ky; and University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas.