CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The Chattanooga Mocs men's golf
team finds out which of the six NCAA Regionals it is assigned to at 9 p.m.,
Monday night on NCAA.com. It is the sixth consecutive year UTC has advanced to
regionals.
The Mocs are coming off their fourth Southern Conference
Championship in those six seasons. As a result, they have an automatic bid into
the tournament. Even so, with a national ranking of No. 33, regionals were a
given once again.
"You never take this for granted," head coach Mark Guhne
was quick to point out. "It's an opportunity to move on and play for a national
championship. It's special.
"We've moved on once and there is nothing like the
finals," Guhne added. "To get the chance to play at Riviera Country Club for the
national title gives you goose bumps."
There are six possible locations for Chattanooga to
possibly land. Three are within the general region: Grandover Resort
(Greensboro, N.C.), UGA Golf Course (Athens, Ga.) and the Club at Olde Stone
(Bowling Green, Ky.). The other three send the Mocs to the airport: UM Golf
Course (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Jimmy Austin OU Golf Club (Norman, Okla.) and
Stanford Golf Course (Stanford, Calif.).
"I don't really have a preference," Guhne noted, then
smiled. "Bowling Green looks close. It's hard to beat teams on their home course. Bowling Green and Greensboro are the only ones that are not the home course for the host team."
Three-time SoCon Golfer of the Year Stephan Jaeger
(Munich, Germany) leads UTC to the tee. He has two wins in 2011-12, is ranked
No. 14 in the country and was on the Ben Hogan Award Watch list. Jaeger will be
joined by All-SoCon selection Steven Fox (Hendersonville, Tenn.), Liam Johnston
(Dumfries, Scotland), Chris Robb (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) and Benni Weilguni
(Langenlois, Austria).
Regionals begin Thursday, May 17, and end Saturday, May
19. It's a 54-hole, three-day event. The field will be announced on an NCAA.com
webcast.
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