May 5, 2009

From Bucknell Athletic Communications

LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell men's golf team clinched a berth in the NCAA Regionals for the third time in the last four years by winning the Patriot League championship on Apr. 26, now the Bison know their NCAA destination. Bucknell will be traveling to Bowling Green, Ky., to play The Club at Olde Stone May 14-16.

Western Kentucky is the host institution for that regional, and 13 other teams will join Bucknell there. In order of seed, the teams at Bowling Green will be Washington, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, UCLA, Mississippi, East Tennessee State, Duke, Louisville, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee, Austin Peay, Cleveland State and Bucknell. Washington is ranked No. 6 nationally, while Georgia Tech is No. 7.

Those 14 teams will be joined by five individuals: Mike Van Sickle of Marquette, Sebastian MacLean of Xavier, Trey Bowling of Eastern Kentucky, Tyler Duncan of Purdue and John Montgomery of Alabama State.

This year there will be six 54-hole regional tournaments, with the top five teams and the low individual not on one of those qualifying teams advancing to the NCAA Championship May 26-30 at The Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

In addition to The Club at Olde Stone, other regional venues are Galloway National Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas, Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif., Red Tail Golf Club in Sorrento, Fla., and Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.

Other No. 1 seeds include Clemson, Stanford, Southern Cal, Georgia and Oklahoma State.

Bucknell has made four previous NCAA appearances. Recently, Bucknell made NCAA Regional trips in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, the Bison placed 26th at the West Regional at the Omni Tucson National in Arizona, and a year later they were sent west again and placed 26th at the Arizona State Karsten Golf Club. Navy placed 26th at last year's NCAA West Regional in Bremerton, Washington.

The Bison have also had 10 individual NCAA qualifiers and a pair of Honorable Mention All-Americans in Mike Chutz (1978) and Dave Richards (1979).

Four-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Jim Cotner will bring a Bucknell squad led by junior Andrew Cohen, who captured his first Patriot League individual title and third All-Patriot League certificate last week. Cohen was 2-under-par at the Patriot League Championship and won the title by eight shots. As a team, the Bison posted a final-round 292 to rally past Navy and Army to win at the West Point Golf Course.

The Club at Olde Stone is an Arthur Hills design that features a mixture of rolling hills, tree-lined fairways, grassland and water. The par-72 course features bentgrass greens and fairways and plays to a maximum length of 7,400 yards. The venue served as host of the 2008 Junior Ryder Cup. In 2007 it was listed No. 8 on Golf Digest's "Best New Private Courses" list, and Golfweek listed The Club at Olde Stone No. 33 on its annual "Top 100 Residential Golf Courses" rankings.

Live tournament scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com. Complete results and recaps will be posted at www.BucknellBison.com and http://www.ncaa.com.