PROVO -- The 15th-ranked BYU men's golf team is headed to Tempe, Arizona where they will play the 2007 NCAA West Regional on May 17-19 at Karsten Golf Course as the sixth seeded team.
This year marks the Cougars' sixteenth consecutive appearance at the NCAA West Regional. The team just came off a win at the MWC tournament where they captured the title by one-stroke over sixth-ranked UNLV.
"It was exciting to win the MWC tournament but now this is a whole different part of the season," said head coach Bruce Brockbank, "You have to go and play your best golf to move on."
The Cougars earned the No. 6 seed and will be one of 27 teams in Tempe attempting to earn a spot to play in the NCAA Championship. Three regional tournaments (East, Central and West) will determine the championship field. Regional tournaments are considered preliminary rounds of NCAA championship competition. The top ten teams and two individuals will advance from each region to the championship finals held at the Gold Course at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Last year the Cougars were the No. 3 seed and earned a 6th-place finish, the third top-10 finish in a row at the NCAA Regional. BYU's best finish in a regional was in 2000 when they finished in second place. They hope to earn their spot in the finals once again this year to mark their fourth consecutive appearance and their sixth in the last nine years.
The tournament features four teams ranked in the top ten, led by second-ranked Stanford along with No. 5 USC, No. 8 UCLA and No. 9 conference-rival UNLV. Conference rivals New Mexico (No. 52) and Colorado State (No. 65) will also join MWC champion BYU (No. 15), while TCU (No. 31) is headed to the Central Regional in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
"It's a good regional and our team has a lot of expectations," said Brockbank, "We are excited to go to Arizona and take our chances. We hope to be in contention and go down there and win the whole thing."
The 2007 NCAA West Regional will be hosted by Arizona State University.