The 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship gets underway Thursday, May 14 and the Big West Conference has two teams and two individuals competing in the regional in Daly City, Calif. UC Davis received the conference's automatic berth after winning its first Big West Conference title and UC Irvine picked up an at-large bid. Joining the Big West duo is Cal Poly's Geoff Gonzalez and Cal State Northridge's Nick Delio.

UC Davis earned an automatic bid to this year's Division I Championships when it posted a seven-shot victory at the Big West Conference Championships at San Luis Obispo Country Club two weeks ago. Besides the team victory, UC Davis had the medalist in sophomore Austin Graham, the runner-up in Ramie Sprinkling and another top-10 finish from Brent Booth who tied for seventh. The Aggies enter the regional tournament after enjoying an impressive regular season in which it finished among the top 10 in 11 of 12 events and had six individual first-place finishes.

UC Irvine, seeded ninth, is making its eighth trip to the regionals in the past nine years.  UCI placed third in the NCAA East Regional last year and advanced to the NCAA Division I Championship for the third time.  The Anteaters tied with Pacific for second place in this season’s Big West Conference Championship.  Junior John Chin leads the Anteaters with a 71.43 average and six top-10 finishes this season.  He was named Big West Conference Player of the Year for the second straight season.  Senior Sean Shahi has a 72.26 average and six top-10 showings.  He was named to the All-Big West second team.

Gonzalez, making his second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, posted four top-10 finishes in his last four tournaments of the regular season. He won the Anteater Invitational and finished tied for first place in the Cal Poly Intercollegiate at Cypress Ridge Golf Course, losing in a playoff.  Gonzalez also was runner-up in the Braveheart Classic and finished ninth in the Big West Conference Championships.  As a freshman, Gonzalez competed in the 2007 NCAA Division I West Regional at Arizona State's Karsten Golf Course in Tempe and finished tied for 53rd place with a four-under-par 212 total.

Delio, a 2009 Big West First Team selection, closed out the spring season with a 16th place finish at the Big West Championship after firing a four-over-par total of 220.  He paces the Matador squad with a 72.4 average.  Delio, who posted five top 10 finishes this season, recorded his best finish at the Braveheart Classic when he tied for second.

USC was awarded the top seed in the West Regional with Texas A&M, Arizona State, San Diego State and UC Davis rounding out the top five.  Other regionals will be held at Galloway National Golf Club (Galloway, N.J.),University of Texas Golf Club (Austin, Texas), Red Tail Golf Club (Sorrento, Fla.), The Club at Olde Stone (Bowling Green, Ky.) and Karsten Creek Golf Club (Stillwater, Okla.).

The six 54-hole regional tournaments will be conducted May 14-16.  The low five teams and the low individual not on those teams will advance to the finals from each regional.  The championships will be conducted May 26-30 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.  The University of Toledo is the host institution for this year’s championships.


Lake Merced Golf Club – Daly City, California
Hosted by the University of San Francisco

Teams:
1.    Southern California
2.    Texas A&M
3.    Arizona State
4.    San Diego State
5.    UC Davis
6.    Oregon
7.    New Mexico
8.    Colorado
9.    UC Irvine
10.    Kansas State
11.    Oregon State
12.    San Diego
13.    San Francisco

Individuals:
1.    Grant Doverspike, Fresno State
2.    Brady Johnson, Brigham Young
3.    Nick Delio, Cal State Northridge
4.    Scott Smith, Nevada
5.    Geoff Gonzalez, Cal Poly
6.    Robbie Fillmore, Brigham Young
7.    Mark Hubbard, San Jose State
8.    Kevin Tucker, Washington State
9.    Bhavik Patel, Fresno State
10.    Greg Moss, Loyola Marymount