Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Ready For NCAA Play
May 31, 2010 | Cowboy Golf
May 31, 2010
Cowboys Seek 11th National Title With Trip To Tennessee
Oklahoma State's men's golf team will be looking to win its 11th national title and second under head coach Mike McGraw when it begins play at the NCAA Championship at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn. this week. The Cowboys will enter the event as the No. 3 seed and will be grouped with Oregon and Stanford for the first two rounds. OSU will begin Round One on the No. 10 tee at 12:12 (EST) on Tuesday. Wednesday's round will begin at 7 a.m. on the first tee. Teams will be regrouped according to score for the third round. Live scoring for the event will be available at golfstat.com.
Refresher Course On Current Format
Last year saw the implementation of a new tournament format. Gone is the 72-hole stroke-play setup to determine both the individual and team champions. The field now plays 54 holes of stroke play with the individual champion being crowned after those three rounds. The top eight squads are then put into a match play bracket to settle the team champion.
OSU In NCAA Play
OSU has won 10 NCAA titles and has produced eight individual national champions. The Cowboys last national title came in 2006, its first campaign under head coach Mike McGraw. That same year also resulted in OSU's most recent medalist in the event, Jonathan Moore. OSU's first NCAA crown came in 1963 under the guidance of Labron Harris. Former coach and current OSU athletics director Mike Holder captured eight titles, winning in 1976, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995 and 2000. Earl Moeller was OSU's first individual champion in 1953 and was followed by Grier Jones in 1968. David Edwards won in 1978 and was followed by Scott Verplank, Brian Watts an E.J. Pfister, who won consecutively from 1986-88. Charles Howell won in record-setting fashion in 2000 and was the program's seventh national champion.
NCAA Rewind ... 2009 NCAA Championship
OSU saw its season come to an end with a 3-2 loss to Georgia in the first round of match play at the NCAA Championship at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. The match pitted the nation's top two teams against each other with the top-ranked Cowboys earning the No. 1 seed in the match play bracket after finishing 13 shots ahead of the field through 54 holes of stroke play. The tilt lived up to its billing with the squads splitting the first two matches, leaving the outcome in the hands of two of the nation's top players in Rickie Fowler and Georgia's Brian Harman. Georgia struck first after Adam Mitchell claimed a 5 and 3 win over Kevin Tway. OSU's two points came courtesy of its two freshman. Peter Uihlein got the Cowboys on the board after knocking off Harris English, 4 and 3. The Bulldogs jumped back in front with Russell Henley's 2-up win over Trent Leon. Morgan Hoffmann drew OSU even at 2-2 with his 4 and 3 win over Hudson Swafford.
The Streak
One of the most impressive streaks at any level in any sport belongs to the Cowboy golf team. OSU has competed in every NCAA Championship, 64 and counting, six the inception of the program in 1947. That number becomes even more impressive when considering their is just one other team competing this week with a string in double digits (Florida, 10). Georgia did have the second-longest string at 12-straight years before seeing its run come to an end this year.
About The Track
A par-72, 7,395-yard layout, The Honors Course was designed by Pete Dye and opened July 2, 1983. The course last hosted the NCAA Championship in 1996 with Arizona State claiming the team title and Tiger Woods emerging as the individual champion. That year, OSU finished eighth with Kris Cox's 24th-place finish being the top performance by a Cowboy.
What 2 Watch 4
The Cowboys are riding a two-tournament winning streak after their victories at the Big 12 Championship and the NCAA Southeast Regional ... in 64 NCAA appearances, the Cowboys have finished first 10 times and second 15 times ... overall, OSU has finished in the top five in 49 of its 63 championship appearances.
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