June 3, 2010
Click here for the official standings from Golfstat
Arizona State, Stanford and the University of San Diego will have a playoff Friday morning at 8 a.m. ET to see who will be the eighth seed in the NCAA men's golf championships as it has reached match play after three rounds of stroke play.
Oklahoma State is the top seed after shooting a 14-under 850 and will face the winner between ASU, Stanford and USD, who all shot 4-over 868 at The Honors Course in Tennessee on Thursday.
Florida State grabbed the two seed and will face Texas Tech, Georgia Tech is the three-seed and will face Augusta State while Pac-10 rivals Oregon and Washington will face each other in the 4-5 matchup.
ASU shot 286-292-290 and rallied just like it did at the NCAA Southeast Regional with three birdies by three different players in the final three holes. Senior James Byrne birded the par-3 eighth and senior Braxton Marquez birdied the par-4 ninth hole as ASU finished on the front nine.
"We grinded it out and never let it get too far away, and that was the key," notes Sun Devil head coach Randy Lein, who watched his team clinch his 11th top-10 NCAA Championships finish in his 18 years, tied for second in the nation with Clemson and behind only Oklahoma State in that time. "Guys made great finishes and we are looking forward to the playoff tomorrow.Our guys played in the 2008 Pac-10 Championship and won that in a playoff, and four of our guys competed in that and say it was the most fun they ever had. We are excited."
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP TOP-10 FINISHES (1993-2010)
Oklahoma State, 13
Clemson, 11
Arizona State, 11
Georgia Tech, 10
Florida, 8
Incredibly, ASU has notched another top-10 finish and has a chance to advance to match play without having a single player in the top 40. Every other team in the top 20 had at least one "heavy" as it had a finisher in the top 40, but ASU's top finisher were James Byrne (74-73-70) and Scott Pinckney (74-70-73) at 1-over 217.
Senior Jesper Kennegard had ASU's low round of the tournament in the first round (68) before shooting a pair of 77s to finish tied for 86th at 6-over 222 and senior Braxto Marquez finished at 10-over 226 (81-72-73).
Marquez played par golf after starting his first seven holes at 10-over and birdied his final hole of the day in each of the final two rounds. Four of the players had at least one round under par.
A NOTE ON THE INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Since taking over the Arizona State program 18 years ago, Randy Lein has coached two NCAA medalists in Alejandro Canizares in 2003 and Todd Demsey in 1993. No other coach has coached a pair of NCAA champions in that time, and only Oklahoma State has had more than one champion. In those 18 years 16 different schools have had a NCAA individual champion.
NCAA MEN'S GOLF MEDALISTS (1993-2010)
2010-Scott Langley, Illinois
2009-Matt Hill, North Carolina State
2008-Kevin Chappell, UCLA
2007-Jamie Lovemark, USC
2006-Jonathan Moore, Oklahoma State
2005-James Lepp, Washington
2004-Ryan Moore, UNLV
2003-Alejandro Canizares, Arizona State
2002-Troy Matteson, Georgia Tech
2001-Nick Gilliam, Florida
2000-Charles Howell, Oklahoma State
1999-Luke Donald, Northwestern
1998-James McLean, Minnesota
1997-Charles Warren, Clemson
1996-Tiger Woods, Stanford
1995-Chip Spratlin, Auburn
1994-Justin Leonard, Texas
1993-Todd Demsey, Arizona State