May 13, 2014
2014 Columbia Regional Live Stats | 2014 Columbia Regional Home Page
Columbia, Mo. - Selected as a No. 8 seed for the 2014 NCAA Columbia Regional (May 15-17), Mizzou Golf begins its postseason charge on Thursday morning at The Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia, Mo.
Under Head Coach Mark Leroux, the Tigers have earned a regional bid in four of the past five seasons and advanced to finals play in 2005 where they finished 16th overall. To advance to this season's NCAA Championship in Hutchinson, Kan., Mizzou must finish within the top five of the team standings at the regional tournament.
Fourteen teams will be participating in the Columbia Regional, including four teams ranked in Golfstat.com's Top 25. Oklahoma State, ranked No. 2 nationally, earned the No. 1 seed at the Columbia Regional. Mizzou will also face nationally-ranked SEC foes in No. 14 LSU and No. 24 Arkansas. LSU finished second at the 2014 SEC Championship, while Arkansas tied for sixth with Mizzou.
Other schools competing include No. 11 Virginia, Arizona State, Iowa, San Diego State, Iowa State, Middle Tennessee State, Ohio State, Denver, Loyola (Md.) and Bryant. Pep Angles from Central Arkansas, Matt Mabrey and Logan McCracken of Tulsa, Daniel Wood from Kansas State and Alex Taylor of Fairfield were selected as individual competitors to the regional.
Competition will take place on the par 72, 7,126-yard course at Old Hawthorne, where the Tigers have historically played very well. Emilio Cuartero and Euan Walker led Mizzou to a first-place finish at the Columbia Regional Preview in September, with Cuartero taking home the individual title and Walker tying for second.
In their last outing at the SEC Championship, the Tigers finished in a sixth-place tie, knocking off a slew of nationally-ranked teams.
Peaking at the right time of year is Cuartero, who leads Mizzou into the weekend. The senior will shoot first for the Tigers in his final home competition of his collegiate career. The Lleida, Spain, native has been a core member of the squad this season and has finished among the Top 10 on six occasions. He was recently named Second Team All-SEC, an impressive honor in college golf's top conference.
Junior Ryan Zech will go next for Mizzou. The Kearney, Mo., native tied for 19th in his last outing at the SEC Championship and will be playing in his second career regional tournament. Zech tied for 15th at the 2013 Columbus (Ohio) Regional as a sophomore.
Walker will also be in the starting lineup. The true freshman has competed in each tournament this season and has statistically been the second-best golfer on the team behind Cuartero. After posting an outstanding freshman campaign, Walker was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team last week by the league coaches.
Columbia native Wilson Sundvold will shoot fourth. The redshirt sophomore has two Top 10 finishes on the season. Both finishes were ties for seventh, one at the Turning Stone Intercollegiate in New York and the other at the Bandon Dunes Championship in Oregon.
Hunter Kraus rounds out the starting five and will also be making his final appearance on Mizzou's home course. The senior shot his career-best round, a 5-under-par 67, at the Columbia Regional Preview earlier this season.
Eighteen holes will be played each day of the tournament with the first round slated for an 8 a.m. CT start on Thursday. Live scoring can be found at golfstat.com. The home site for the event can be found at mutigers.com/ncaagolf.
For tournament updates and more information on Mizzou Golf, follow mutigers.com and @MizzouMensGolf.