Coach Blaine Woodruff & Garrett Engle
Photo by: GoMocs.com
NCAA BOUND: Men’s Golf Earns NCAA At Large Bid
5/3/2023 1:55:00 PM | Men's Golf
Garrett Engle and the Chattanooga Mocs men’s golf team had their ticket punched to the NCAA Championships Wednesday afternoon.
STATS/NOTES | ABOUT CHATTANOOGA GOLF
CHATTANOOGA---The Chattanooga Mocs men's golf team is back where it belongs. The Mocs were named in the 81-team, 450-player field for the NCAA Championships. It's the first team appearance since 2014 with the squad claiming an at large bid after an amazing climb in 2022-23.
The Mocs were ranked No. 135 at the end of the 2022 campaign. Coach Blaine Woodruff took the reins in June looking to get the program back to the heights achieved under Chattanooga alum Mark Guhne '84 through much of his 16-plus seasons before retiring in December 2021.
Woodruff and mates captured four tourney titles along the way and rose as high as No. 42 before settling in at No. 48 currently.
"I didn't know what to expect starting the fall," Woodruff shared in an interview on Golf Channel's selection show. "We focused on controlling what we can control and just try to get one percent better every single day. The results started coming and so did the belief from the guys.
"Now they're confident, believe in themselves and have a little swagger about them. We're just going to continue doing what we do and let the results take care of themselves."
The squad is headed to University Club in Auburn, Ala., for regionals May 15-17. There are 13 teams and 10 individuals in the regionals. It's the ninth team entry, fourth at large, into the NCAA Championships and 13th year overall including four individual bids.
Paul Conroy is one of those individuals as he'll be making his second tournament start for the Mocs. He played in the 2022 NCAA Norman Regionals. Juniors John Houk and Samuel Espinosa are no stranger to postseason play with both reaching national finals at Tennessee Wesleyan (NAIA) and King (NCAA DII), respectively. Sophomores Braedon Wear and Garrett Engle are set for their first postseason appearances, although Engle was a member of an Oklahoma Sooners squad that advanced to match play at the 2022 NCAA Finals.
Five teams and one individual on a non-advancing team move forward to the finals May 26-31 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The program has four finals appearances on its resume with Neil Connolly (1993) and Chris Robb (2014) making it individually, while the 2009 and 2012 teams claimed berths as a group.
The 2009 team finished third braving Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla., to advance to Inverness Club finishing 18th. The 2012 crew captured the NCAA Bowling Green Regionals out-dueling Texas A&M and UCLA before another 18th-place finish at the finals, this time at Riviera Country Club.
Connolly's move in 1993 came from a tie for fifth finish in Charlottesville, Va. He earned his way individually through the field to Champions Golf Club in Lexington, Ky. Robb tied for fourth in the 2014 Eugene Regionals leading the team to an agonizing sixth-place spot and missing the finals by five strokes.
But he had a lifeline winning a 1-hole, 3-player playoff to advance to the finals at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. A rain-soaked, delay-riddle event ensued. He entered the final day at 3 over with 11 holes remaining. Robb kind of made the most of them.
He rose from T62 on the leaderboard to 15th playing those final 11 at 5 under. Amazingly, it started with five straight pars before blistering the final six with five birdies. That 15th-place finish after a final 64 secured All-American status for the Scot. It was a jumbled leaderboard as his 2-under 208 was just four strokes off Cameron Wilson's (Stanford) playoff-winning total of 204 (-6).
Since the last team trip to Eugene in 2014, a streak of eight straight team bids starting in 2007, the Mocs sent two individuals. Conroy to Norman last year, and Wes Gosselin in 2016's Tuscaloosa Regionals.
The next starts on Monday, May 15 and are 54 holes with 18 per day. The final round is Wednesday, May 17. There are six sites across the country with the top 5 teams and top individual on a non-advancing team to build a 30-team, 156-player field for the NCAA Tournament Finals May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Chattanooga is one of four Southern Conference teams in the 2023 NCAA Men's Golf Championships. It's joined by ETSU (Las Vegas/automatic bid), Furman (Salem/at large) and UNC Greensboro (Las Vegas/at large). Mercer individual Tobias Jonsson is also in the field at Auburn.
Auburn Regional Participants (Golfstat ranking)
(1) Vanderbilt
(12) Tennessee
(13) Auburn
(24) Colorado State
(25) Ohio State
(36) Washington
(37) TCU
(48) CHATTANOOGA
(49) Houston
(60) Marquette
(62) Indiana
(124) Augusta
(234) Siena
Individuals
Alex Goff, Kentucky
Brantley Scott, Troy
Erik Jansson, Jacksonville State
Tobias Jonsson, Mercer
Cameron Clarke, Southern Miss
Brian Ma, Harvard
Jackson Skeen, Tennessee Tech
Luka Naglic, Arkansas State
Hugo Thyr, South Alabama
Killian McGinley, Fairfield
GoMocs.com is the official website of the Chattanooga Mocs. Buy officially licensed gear in our online store. The Mocs can also be followed on their official Facebook page or on Twitter. Find out how to join the UTC Mocs Club and support more than 300 student-athletes by clicking here.
CHATTANOOGA---The Chattanooga Mocs men's golf team is back where it belongs. The Mocs were named in the 81-team, 450-player field for the NCAA Championships. It's the first team appearance since 2014 with the squad claiming an at large bid after an amazing climb in 2022-23.
The Mocs were ranked No. 135 at the end of the 2022 campaign. Coach Blaine Woodruff took the reins in June looking to get the program back to the heights achieved under Chattanooga alum Mark Guhne '84 through much of his 16-plus seasons before retiring in December 2021.
Woodruff and mates captured four tourney titles along the way and rose as high as No. 42 before settling in at No. 48 currently.
"I didn't know what to expect starting the fall," Woodruff shared in an interview on Golf Channel's selection show. "We focused on controlling what we can control and just try to get one percent better every single day. The results started coming and so did the belief from the guys.
"Now they're confident, believe in themselves and have a little swagger about them. We're just going to continue doing what we do and let the results take care of themselves."
The squad is headed to University Club in Auburn, Ala., for regionals May 15-17. There are 13 teams and 10 individuals in the regionals. It's the ninth team entry, fourth at large, into the NCAA Championships and 13th year overall including four individual bids.
Paul Conroy is one of those individuals as he'll be making his second tournament start for the Mocs. He played in the 2022 NCAA Norman Regionals. Juniors John Houk and Samuel Espinosa are no stranger to postseason play with both reaching national finals at Tennessee Wesleyan (NAIA) and King (NCAA DII), respectively. Sophomores Braedon Wear and Garrett Engle are set for their first postseason appearances, although Engle was a member of an Oklahoma Sooners squad that advanced to match play at the 2022 NCAA Finals.
Five teams and one individual on a non-advancing team move forward to the finals May 26-31 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The program has four finals appearances on its resume with Neil Connolly (1993) and Chris Robb (2014) making it individually, while the 2009 and 2012 teams claimed berths as a group.
The 2009 team finished third braving Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla., to advance to Inverness Club finishing 18th. The 2012 crew captured the NCAA Bowling Green Regionals out-dueling Texas A&M and UCLA before another 18th-place finish at the finals, this time at Riviera Country Club.
Connolly's move in 1993 came from a tie for fifth finish in Charlottesville, Va. He earned his way individually through the field to Champions Golf Club in Lexington, Ky. Robb tied for fourth in the 2014 Eugene Regionals leading the team to an agonizing sixth-place spot and missing the finals by five strokes.
But he had a lifeline winning a 1-hole, 3-player playoff to advance to the finals at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. A rain-soaked, delay-riddle event ensued. He entered the final day at 3 over with 11 holes remaining. Robb kind of made the most of them.
He rose from T62 on the leaderboard to 15th playing those final 11 at 5 under. Amazingly, it started with five straight pars before blistering the final six with five birdies. That 15th-place finish after a final 64 secured All-American status for the Scot. It was a jumbled leaderboard as his 2-under 208 was just four strokes off Cameron Wilson's (Stanford) playoff-winning total of 204 (-6).
Since the last team trip to Eugene in 2014, a streak of eight straight team bids starting in 2007, the Mocs sent two individuals. Conroy to Norman last year, and Wes Gosselin in 2016's Tuscaloosa Regionals.
The next starts on Monday, May 15 and are 54 holes with 18 per day. The final round is Wednesday, May 17. There are six sites across the country with the top 5 teams and top individual on a non-advancing team to build a 30-team, 156-player field for the NCAA Tournament Finals May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Chattanooga is one of four Southern Conference teams in the 2023 NCAA Men's Golf Championships. It's joined by ETSU (Las Vegas/automatic bid), Furman (Salem/at large) and UNC Greensboro (Las Vegas/at large). Mercer individual Tobias Jonsson is also in the field at Auburn.
Auburn Regional Participants (Golfstat ranking)
(1) Vanderbilt
(12) Tennessee
(13) Auburn
(24) Colorado State
(25) Ohio State
(36) Washington
(37) TCU
(48) CHATTANOOGA
(49) Houston
(60) Marquette
(62) Indiana
(124) Augusta
(234) Siena
Individuals
Alex Goff, Kentucky
Brantley Scott, Troy
Erik Jansson, Jacksonville State
Tobias Jonsson, Mercer
Cameron Clarke, Southern Miss
Brian Ma, Harvard
Jackson Skeen, Tennessee Tech
Luka Naglic, Arkansas State
Hugo Thyr, South Alabama
Killian McGinley, Fairfield
GoMocs.com is the official website of the Chattanooga Mocs. Buy officially licensed gear in our online store. The Mocs can also be followed on their official Facebook page or on Twitter. Find out how to join the UTC Mocs Club and support more than 300 student-athletes by clicking here.
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