Gator Country

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The seventh-ranked University of Florida men’s golf team has been named the third seed in the 2007 East Regional, the NCAA announced Monday. Georgia Tech will host the event from May 17-19 at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta.

“You’re always excited about the opportunity to play close to home, especially in the postseason,” Florida head coach Buddy Alexander said. “We’re familiar with the golf course and we’ve had some time to fine-tune things, so I can see us going up there and being pretty successful.”

Each regional site will host 27 teams and six individuals, all vying for a spot in the NCAA Championships. The top 10 teams at each regional, as well the top two individuals not on an advancing team, advance to the national championship tournament to be held from May 30-June 2 at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va.

A challenging field awaits the Gators in Alpharetta, as seventh-ranked Florida will square off with eight teams ranked in the top-25 of the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. The field’s total of nine top-25 teams ties with the West Regional for the top total. Only top-ranked Georgia and No. 11 Clemson, who garnered the first and second seeds, respectively, will be slotted higher than UF at the East Regional.

Seeded one spot below Florida is No. 12 Coastal Carolina, the Big South champion, while the host school and Atlantic Coast Conference co-champion Georgia Tech, the nation’s 10th-ranked team, claimed the fifth seed. Georgia State grabbed the sixth seed at the Alpharetta regional, No. 20 Charlotte, the Atlantic 10 champion, was awarded the seventh slot and 23rd-ranked North Carolina was seeded eighth. No. 25 Florida State and No. 24 Duke round out the top-10 seeds and contingent of ranked teams at the East Regional in the ninth and 10th spots, respectively.

“You play the entire season with the goal of improving to the point where you can beat some really good postseason teams,” Alexander said. “That’s what postseason golf is all about. You have to go out and beat good teams, no matter what region you’re in.”

The East Regional will be the second time Florida has played at the Golf Club of Georgia in little over a month, having seen the course from April 9-11 at the United States Collegiate Championship. Junior Tyler Brown (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Billy Horschel (Grant, Fla.) shot identical scores of 225 (+9) to earn top-20 finishes for the Gators. Last year, UF tied for first at the NCAA West Regional before bringing home a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships in Sunriver, Ore.

Scoring for the 2007 NCAA East Regional will be done live on the Internet at http://www.golfstat.com, and can also be accessed via http://www.gatorzone.com.

2007 NCAA East Regional Field (conference automatic qualifiers in parenthesis)
1. Georgia
2. Clemson
3. FLORIDA
4. Coastal Carolina (Big South Conference)
5. Georgia Tech (Atlantic Coast Conference)
6. Georgia State
7. Charlotte (Atlantic 10 Conference)
8. North Carolina
9. Florida State
10. Duke
11. Auburn
12. Mississippi
13. Chattanooga (Southern Conference)
14. UAB
15. UCF
16. Virginia Tech
17. Penn State
18. Old Dominion (Colonial Athletic Association)
19. Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley Conference)
20. Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt Conference)
21. St. John’s
22. Eastern Michigan (Mid-American Conference)
23. Maryland
24. Longwood
25. Rhode Island
26. Hartford
27. Boston College

Individuals:
1. Duncan Stewart, Jacksonville
2. Fredric Sundberg, Campbell
3. Chris Narramore, Middle Tennessee
4. Matt Cook, Western Carolina
5. Russell Knox, Jacksonville
6. Jeff Dennis, North Florida

Courtesy UF Sports Info.

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