The No. 12-ranked Georgia men's golf team will compete in the Erie (Colo.) Regional May 19-21 in an attempt to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
The Erie Regional, one of six across the country, will take place at Colorado National Golf Club. The top five teams from each of the six regionals will advance to the NCAAs May 31-June 5 in Stillwater, Okla.
The Bulldogs will join a field that includes Oklahoma State, Auburn, Arizona State, Clemson, Chattanooga, TCU, North Florida, New Mexico State, Northwestern, Colorado State, San Jose State and Denver. Oklahoma State is the nation's No. 1 team, while Auburn is ninth.
Georgia will be making its 22nd appearance since the NCAA went to the Regionals format for the 1989 season, and the Bulldogs have advanced to the NCAAs 15 times in that span. Last year, however, Georgia did not advance after placing sixth in the South Central Regional, snapping a streak of 12 straight berths in the NCAAs.
"To me, this has always been the most stressful tournament of the year," said Georgia coach Chris Haack, who led the Bulldogs to NCAA titles in 1999 and 2005. "There is no margin for error, and we saw that firsthand last year. That was not much fun to go through last year, but it grabbed our attention and will be a catalyst for this year. We have a team that's seasoned at the top of the lineup and those guys know what's at stake. We are looking forward to this tournament and getting ourselves back to the NCAAs. But it won't be easy. We'll be facing some really tough teams in Colorado."
The Bulldogs are riding the momentum created by Russell Henley at the Nationwide Tour's Stadion Classic at UGA this past weekend. Henley became just the second amateur to win a Nationwide Tour event as he posted a two-shot victory on Sunday. Fellow senior Harris English came in 18th in the event.
The other five regionals are being hosted by Virginia Tech, Florida, Indiana, Arizona and San Diego. Live results will be available on Golfstat.com.
