University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols to Make Fifth Consecutive NCAA Golf Regional Appearance
May 18, 2004 | Men's Golf
May 18, 2004
Tennessee is set to make the program's fifth straight trip to an NCAA golf regional May 20-22 at Yale Golf Club in New Haven, Conn.
The Vols enter the NCAA East Regional as the ninth seed with an overall record of 90-70-2 (.562), and an SEC record of 20-22-1 (.477).
The seeding for the East Regional is as follows: No. 1 Florida (No. 1 in Golfweek), No. 2 Clemson (No. 2), No. 3 Georgia (No. 3), No. 4 Georgia Tech (No. 6), No. 5 South Carolina (No. 12), No. 6 Augusta State (No. 14), No. 7 Wake Forest (No. 16), No. 8 Duke (No. 18), No. 9 Tennessee (No. 28), No. 10 North Carolina (No. 29), No. 11 LSU (No. 27), No. 12 Georgia State (No. 34), No. 13 Jacksonville State (No. 43), No. 14 North Carolina State (No. 42), No. 15 UAB, No. 16 Auburn, No. 17 Vanderbilt (No. 49), No. 18 Georgia Southern (No. 48), No. 19 Penn State, No. 20 Georgetown, No. 21 Towson, No. 22 Rhode Island, No. 23 Maryland, No. 24 Binghamton, No. 25 Yale, No. 26 Army and No. 27 Long Island.
Tennessee head coach Jim Kelson looks forward to this year's regional and feels his team is ready to compete against some of the country's finest teams.
"We feel very good about our team's approach to this year's NCAA Championships," Kelson said. "We are looking forward to this event with a great deal of optimism. For perhaps the first time all season, this group is beginning to believe its true potential. Tino Weiss and Ross Cox have improved tremendously over the past two months. Their consistent play has made a huge difference in our team."
Leading the team into the regional at the No. 1 position is junior David Skinns. Skinns leads the team in scoring average with a 72.80. The recently-named second-team All SEC selection leads the team with three top 10 finishes, with his highest coming at the Suntrust Gator Invitational in second. His other top 10 finishes occured at the Coca-Cola Tournament of Champions and Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship, both in a tie for ninth. He is second on the team with 12 rounds of par or better.
Junior John Scott Rattan anchors the No. 2 spot. Rattan recently garnered second-team All SEC honors for the first time in his career and has a scoring average of 73.18. Earlier this season he recorded his highest career finish as a Vol in a tie for third at the Landfall Tradition. He also has another top 10 finish, coming at the Bank of Tennessee/Ridges Intercollegiate, in a tie for ninth. He leads the team with 13 rounds of par or better.
Ross McGowan, also a junior, will compete in the third position. McGowan enters post season play with a scoring average of 73.36, with his highest finish coming at the Coca-Cola Tournament of Champions in eighth place. For the season he has 11 rounds of par or better.
Rounding out the Vol contingent are freshmen Ross Cox and Tino Weiss in the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Cox has a scoring average of 74.00, with the highest finish of his young Vol career coming at the Carpet Capital Collegiate in a tie for 17th. Weiss recently recorded his highest finish of the season at the SEC Championships in a tie for 31st. He has a scoring average of 75.40.
Tennessee has competed in 11 previous regionals, with its highest finish coming last season when the Vols finished in fourth place. Last season, the Vols turned in a scorecard of 281-291-291--863 to advance to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1997. McGowan led the Vol charges, finishing tied for 16th with a scorecard of 67-72-73--212.
The top 10 teams from each of the three regionals, plus the top two individuals whose team is not among the top 10, qualify for the Championships, which will be held June 1-4 at the Homestead's Cascades Course in Hot Springs, Va.
Players Mentioned
