May 29, 2005
Mizzou's 2005 NCAA Nationals Notes in PDF Format
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MIZZOU at the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships
Wednesday-Saturday, June 1-4, 2005
Caves Valley Golf Club - Owings Mills, Md. --- Par 70 - 7,129 yards
MIZZOU MEN IN FIRST NCAA FINALS IN 19 YEARS
The Missouri men's golf team enters the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championshships in an unfamiliar position - after all, it's Mizzou's first appearance at the finals since 1986. To give some perspective on Mizzou's nationals drought, junior Ben Scott - who has MU's lowest stroke average and finished in a tie for third at the NCAA Central Regional - was just three years old the last time Mizzou competed for a national title.
This week marks Missouri's ninth appearance all-time at the NCAA finals. Their best finish is a tie for 13th in 1983, when Stan Utley - now one of the foremost short-game teachers in America, and MU's volunteer coach - was a junior.
TIGER MEN TURNED GOLDEN DOME INTO GOLDEN TEE AT REGIONALS
Missouri is surely the biggest surprise to reach Baltimore, which they did after tying for sixth place at the NCAA Central Regional in South Bend, Ind.
The Tigers were seeded 21st at the regional, and were longshots to make even the regional field entering the spring competitive season. Under first-year Head Coach Mark Leroux, though, MU turned its season around with back-to-back team titles at Belmont and Purdue, and a third-place at the Big 12 Championships - Mizzou's best-ever finish in the nine years of the league, and its best since a third at the 1988 Big Eight Championships.
MORE ON THE TIGER TURNAROUND
Mizzou's third-place finish at the Big 12 Championships five weeks ago was a surprise in and of itself. As stated above, it was the school's best men's golf finish in the nine-year history of the league. What's more impressive about the feat, however, is that Missouri had finished better than EIGHTH just once in the eight previous years.
In addition, the team has rebounded from final rankings last year around 100 to catapult to the final 30 programs competing this season.
GREAT SCOTT!
Junior Ben Scott has been on a roll this spring, especially since late March. Scott has a team-high eight top-10 finishes this season, including in each of his last five tournaments.
His spring started with co-medalist honors at the Matlock Collegiate Classic in Lakeland, Fla., Feb. 14-15. That made him the first Tiger to win a tournament since Mark McBride in 2001, and the first spring medalist since John Utley in 1990. His tournament included his second collegiate hole-in-one, aced on the 205-yard 14th hole with a 3-iron.
Scott hasn't folded under pressure, in fact he's improved his play; his fifth-place finish at the Big 12 Championships was the second-best in Mizzou history, and his tie for third at the NCAA Central Regional two weeks ago was the best-ever by a Tiger.
MIZZOU'S ONE OF THE HOTTEST TEAMS COMING IN
Nearly left for dead from the perspective of regional-qualifying status just a few months ago, the Tigers are instead coming into Baltimore as one of the hottest teams lately.
Mizzou's streak started at the beginning of April, when the Tigers won the Belmont Invitational for their first tournament title in a year and a half. It was also MU's first spring tournament win since 1995. The Tigers were buoyed by a 1-2 finish from junior Chris Mabry and sophomore Shawn Jasper, who each fired a school-record-shattering 63 in the first round of the tournament at Franklin, Tenn.
Two weeks later in West Lafayette, Ind., the Tigers repeated the feat by capturing the Boilermaker Invitational title, beating five teams that were ranked ahead of them - including top-25 squads Minnesota and host Purdue.
Finally, the Tigers closed April and started May with its stunning third-place finish at the Big 12 Conference Championships.
MORE ON BIG 12'S
The Tigers didn't just have a good weekend in Texas; they had a phenomenal tournament by historical standards. In addition to the team exploits mentioned previously, MU performed above expectations individually as well.
Junior Ben Scott finished in a tie for fifth, and sophomore Shawn Jasper captured sole possession of seventh to give the Tigers two players in the top 10 of the conference championship for the first time since 1984, when current volunteer assistant Stan Utley led the team as a senior.
ROUTE `63' PUTS TIGERS OFF BEATEN PATH
Talk to most mid-Missourians about 63, and they'll likely point you in the direction of U.S. 63, the main North-South route that splits the state and skirts Columbia. Applied to the Tiger men's golf team, though, 63 is the new single-round school record, set back in April. As rare a score as it is, though, it was common enough for two Tigers - sophomore Shawn Jasper and junior Chris Mabry - to shoot 8-under-par rounds of 63 in the same round to open the Belmont Invitational.
Thanks to research from CU shot guru Dave Plati, it's confirmed to be the lowest teammates have ever gone in the same round in Big 12 history.
KELLY NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
Sophomore John Kelly has been named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team, league officials announced earlier this week. Kelly, a business major from St. Louis, has the fifth-best stroke average on the team this season at 74.7.
TIGERS IN TRAINING
Three Tennessee prep golf standouts - Peter Malnati (Dandridge, Tenn.), Ryne Fisher (Clarksville, Tenn.), and Bud Reynolds (Knoxville, Tenn.) - have signed National Letters of Intent to enroll at the University of Missouri and play golf next season as part of Mark Leroux's first recruiting class.
All three are ranked among the top 100 golfers in last year's Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings. Malnati was ranked 50th, Fisher 71st and Reynolds 92nd.
Malnati tied for 35th at the prestigious AJGA Polo Golf Junior Classic, and was recognized as one of only 10 members of the 2004 HP Scholastic Junior All-America Team. He won two junior tournaments last summer: the Signal Mountain Junior Invitational in late June, which included a second-round 66; and the Craig Goodman Rudolph Memorial Junior Invitational in late July. He had seven other top-five finishes.
Fisher had five top-five finishes in his 14 tournaments last summer, including a runner-up showing at the Westfield PGA Junior Section Championship in Tennessee in late June. He also was third behind Malnati at the Craig Goodman Rudolph Memorial Junior Invitational in late July, and parlayed a first-round 64 - which tied the second-lowest round in the entire AJGA season - into a fourth-place finish at the AJGA Burgett H. Mooney, Jr. Rome Classic in Georgia.
Reynolds has finished second and sixth in the last two Tennessee Class AAA state high-school championships. His best junior finish last summer was a fourth-place finish at the Bobby Chapman in early September.