SUGAR GROVE, Ill. – The University of New Mexico men’s golf team is set to compete in the NCAA Championships beginning Friday, May 26 in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
The 30 qualifying teams and 156 total players will play 54 holes, before the top 15 teams play a fourth round on Memorial Day. From there, the top eight teams advance to match play before the national championship match on Wednesday, May 31.
UNM is coming in off yet another top-five performance at this year’s NCAA Regionals in West Lafayette, and is set as the 28th seed in the 30-team field.
Most recently, the team saw its lone senior Andrej Bevins secure his third collegiate victory en route to securing the team’s first NCAA Championship berth since 2013, where the team finished fifth.
The Lobos are riding a hot streak recently, recording four consecutive top 5 performances since competing at the 3M Augusta Invitational April 1-2. Over that stretch, UNM tallied its two lowest relation-to-par performances as a team of the season.
This year, the Lobos recorded six top-five performances, and finished outside of the tournament top-10 only once.
Heading into this week, UNM is looking to record its third top-five at NCAA Championship’s under head coach Glen Millican, following up performances in 2005 and 2013.
The team’s greatest NCAA Championship performance came in 1973 when the team finished fourth overall. This marks UNM’s 41st appearance in the NCAA Championships.
Rich Harvest Farms opened in 1999, and quickly rose to a position of prominence in the golfing world. The private, members-only facility plays home to the Northern Illinois University Huskies Men’s & Women’s Golf Teams, along with the Kids Golf Foundation of Illinois.
Some of Rich Harvest Farms accolades include being named one of Rolex’s “World’s Top 1000 Golf Courses”, in addition to being consistently ranked on Golf Digest’s “America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses”. Most recently, the course was named by Golf Digest as one of America’s 75 Toughest Courses in the United States (2012).
The course has also hosted the 2014 NCAA Midwest Regional and the 2009 Solheim Cup.
Golf Channel is the exclusive broadcast home of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships. Live coverage will be aired on Golf Channel Monday through Wednesday of championship week.
Live scoring can be accessed via GolfStat here.
Lobos Dancing, Championship Play Begins Friday
