May 19, 2007

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ALPHARETTA, Ga. - The Auburn men's golf team qualified for the NCAA Championship by tying for second with a final round 290 Saturday for an 867 total in the three-day NCAA East Regional at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Ga. The second place finish is the Tigers' best in an NCAA Regional since winning the 1997 East Regional at The Homestead (Va.).

Auburn will make its 15th NCAA Championship appearance at the Golden Horseshoe in Williamsburg, Va., May 30-June 2.

The Tigers, seeded 11th, had a solid team effort as junior All-SEC Patton Kizzire fired a 3-under 69 to finish fifth at 4-under 212, and sophomore All-SEC Glenn Northcutt finished sixth at 3-under 213 with a final round 69.

Junior Steven Groover tied for 33rd with a 72-73-77--222, junior Jay Moseley tied for 56th with a 75-72-78--225, and Jamie Bowen tied for 93rd a 75-81-75--231.

"I am very proud of these young men," head coach Mike Griffin said. "They continued to impress throughout the spring and in the last two tournaments. This week was no different. It was a great tournament by Glenn and Patton and the rest of the supporting cast. They all did what they needed to do to move on."

Top-ranked Georgia won the 27-team East Regional with a 286-288-281--855, 12 shots ahead of a trio of teams including Auburn (293-284-290--867), No. 7 Florida (290-285-292--867) and No. 10 Georgia Tech (284-294-289--867). No. 25 Florida State (300-292-281--873) finished fifth ahead of No. 24 Duke (288-293-293--874), No. 20 Charlotte (296-291-288--875), No. 23 North Carolina (305-286-286--877), Georgia State (289-304-287--880) and Coastal Carolina (300-290-294--884), all of which advance to the NCAA Championship.

"I am real excited to be going back to Colonial Williamsburg for the national championship," Griffin said. "We were there for the regional a few years ago and it is a historic area of the country."

After a bogey on No. 7, Kizzire had four birdies on Nos. 8, 10, 11 and 13 to get to 3-under. The Tuscaloosa, Ala., native bogeyed No. 14 and birdied No. 18 to finish with a 69, his best round of the tournament.

"I played well," Kizzire said. "I was a little disappointed with a few things, but overall it was a good tournament for me. I'm glad to be playing well this time of the year. I love big tournaments and it is a lot of fun to be playing well in these big tournaments on these nice golf courses.

"We are pretty excited about making it to nationals. We are getting better every week. We have a week to prepare for it."

Northcutt began with a birdie on the first, then mixed in birdies at Nos. 5 and 8 with a bogey at No. 6 to make the turn at 2-under. He birdied three straight holes beginning at No. 10 to get to 5-under, but finished with bogeys on Nos. 14 and 17. Northcutt's 69 capped a dramatic turnaround as he was tied for 79th with a 77 after the first round before moving up the leaderboard with a 67 in the second round.

"I played well and started off and made some big birdie putts and par putts," Northcutt said. "I made a few bad swings coming in. Overall, I played well the last two days.

"We did what we came here to do. We gave ourselves a chance to win the golf tournament. We have some more work to do to get ready for the nationals and to play for a national championship."

Florida's Billy Horschel (73-69-68--210) and Georgia's Brendan Todd (70-69-71--210) tied for first, two shots ahead of a pair of golfers including Georgia's Chris Kirk (71-71-69--211) and Clemson's Kyle Stanley (73-71-67--211). Stanley and UAB's Zach Sucher (73-73-69--215) were the two individuals to qualify for the NCAA Championship.

Eleventh-ranked 11 Clemson (293-299-292--884) was defeated by Coastal Carolina on the fourth playoff hole in a battle for the final qualifying position. Virginia Tech finished 13th with a 304-292-292--888 followed by Central Florida (299-294-297--890), UAB (303-299-296--898), Eastern Michigan (300-309-290--899), Penn State (297-304-300--901), Ole Miss (309-297-297--908), Jacksonville State (303-301-304--908), Chattanooga (299-306-305--910), Maryland (295-310-307--912), St. John's (316-302-304--922), Old Dominion (314-301-311--926), Louisiana-Lafayette (309-319-309--937), Rhode Island (321-309-310--940), Hartford(321-315-306--942), Boston College (315-316-316--947) and Longwood (309-327-315--951).

This will be Auburn's fifth NCAA Championship appearance in the last six years and 11th since 1993.