Ivy Champion Golf Team Qualifies for NCAA East Regional Chattanooga Site

After tremendous play at the Ivy League Championship last week, the Columbia men’s golf team has earned a bid at the 2008 NCAA regional qualifier. The Lions will compete against other teams from the Eastern League in Chattanooga, Tennessee at the Council Fire Golf Club starting May 15. If the Light Blue places in the top three, it will earn a spot to compete against teams around the country at the NCAA final championships a few weeks later in West Lafayette, Ind..

The Lions will have to look to some of their strongest players to continue to lead the way in order to secure a spot in the finals. Freshman Clark Granum placed third overall at the Ivies, and was the highest finisher for Columbia with scores of 75, 75 and 72 over three rounds of play. Also showing impressive performances were Cashel Rosier who achieved fourth place with a score of 225, and freshman Austin Quinten in a three-way tie for sixth place with 226 points. The Lions were also awarded with individual honors as Quinten, Rosier, and Clark Granum earned All-Ivy League distinction.

The Lions will be the only representative from the Ivy League at the regionals, and they will be competing against mostly big state Division I schools such as the University of Tennessee and the University of Maryland. The team to beat is returning champion Georgia, which placed second nationally last year behind west coast powerhouse Stanford. Other highly ranked teams include Alabama, USC, UCLA, Oklahoma State, and Charlotte.

While the East region is probably the weakest of the three—East, West and Central—the Lions will have to give their best performance if they want to secure a spot at the finals. The last time the Light Blue made it this far in the season was in its last Ivy championship season, 1999. The Lions have a few weeks of training to go and hopefully they can pick up enough speed in order to be a strong competitor.

The tournament will commence on May 15 in Chattanooga.