May 16, 2006
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Notre Dame will step onto the course in NCAA postseason play for the 33rd time in program history, and the third consecutive year, when it participates in the NCAA East Regional Thursday-Saturday at the Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando. The Irish, who won the 1944 NCAA title and have 19 top-10 NCAA finishes to their credit, will be looking to take the next step in their return to national prominence with a trip back to the NCAA finals for the first time since 1966.
Notre Dame comes into the weekend playing some of its best golf of the year, with three consecutive top-six finishes, a third consecutive BIG EAST Conference title, and a 288.33 stroke average, including the top two tournament scores in school history (842 at the BIG EAST, 853 at The Maxwell).
Named the Golfweek National Team of the Week on May 1, Notre Dame continues to enjoy one of its most successful seasons ever in 2005-06, currently posting a school-record 292.42 stroke average with eight top-six finishes and seven wins over Golfweek Top 25 opponents. The Irish also are poised to have at least three players finish with sub-74 stroke averages for the first time ever.
Quoting Coach Kubinski ...
"This weekend is the beginning of our journey. One thing is obvious - our seed is not indicative of our chances. It all comes back to the rules error in the fall (at CordeValle) and the corresponding drop in the rankings. We've beaten several of the teams seeded in front of us and feel we just need to execute to be successful this weekend.
"We don't need spectacular play. We need to play solidly and make good decisions. The NCAA will set up a course that tests the players both physically and mentally. We failed the mental test in the opening round in Oklahoma, and we won't have that luxury in Orlando. We must think
well from the opening hole.
"I am very confident that the make-up of this team is special. We have our five players playing the best at this time in the lineup, as it should be, but, as a bonus, the chemistry has been tremendous. They get along well. They work to help each other. It's a great group.
"As for the physical skills, the five guys representing Notre Dame right now are the longest accurate hitters we could put together. I've seen us routinely driving it 300 to 340 yards and in play. Most importantly, though, this group has shown a great ability to score within 60 yards of the hole. They're putting, pitching and chipping the ball with great confidence and touch.
"Golf is a game played along a fence of emotions. The player with the sturdiest fence has the best chance to win...physical skills being similar. If we can think like professionals out there, show mental maturity, manage our emotions, make sound decisions and combine our physical prowess, we'll have a chance to do something special. It's something that can be accomplished."
Dates and Times
As the No. 16 seed in this year's NCAA East Regional, Notre Dame will be paired with golfers from Georgia Southern (No. 17) and Maryland (No. 18) for the first two rounds of the event. On Thursday, those threesomes will begin the opening round at 7 a.m. (ET) from the first tee and continuing at approximately nine-minute intervals. Then, on Friday, those groups will go off at 12:12 p.m. (ET) in the second round, starting on the 10th tee.
Saturday's final round tee times will be based upon the 36-hole team standings. The top 15 squads in the field through two rounds will have the early morning tee times from the first and 10th tees, while those teams in places No. 16-27 will go off in the afternoon.
Following The Irish
Live scoring (every three holes) for the NCAA East Regional will be available through the Golfstat web site (www.golfstat.com). Complete results following each day's action also will be posted on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.und.com).
In addition, in-progress updates will be available on the Notre Dame Sports Hotline (574-631-3000) - callers should select option #9, then press #2. Assistant sports information director Chris Masters will be on location with the Irish in Florida and will provide regular live reports from the course on Notre Dame's progress during all three days of competition at the NCAA East Regional.
The Tournament Format
A total of 27 five-man teams (135 participants plus six individual participants from non-competing teams) will be taking part in the NCAA East Regional. Conventional collegiate golf team scoring rules will apply, with the lowest four scores in the five-man lineup for each round counting toward the team total. The 10 teams with the lowest 54-hole scores (and the two lowest-scoring individuals not on a top-10 finisher) will advance to the NCAA Championships, to be held May 31-June 3 on the Crosswater Course at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore.
In case of team ties for NCAA Championship berths, a sudden-death playoff will be utilized, with the top four individual scores on each hole combined for the team total. Individual ties will be broken after any team playoff has concluded.
The Teams
Notre Dame is the No. 16 seed in this weekend's NCAA East Regional, the highest regional seeding for the Irish in its three appearances since the current regional format was introduced in 1989. The remainder of the 27-team East Regional field will be as follows (in order of seeding): Georgia, UCLA, UNLV, Georgia State, North Carolina, Southern California, Texas Tech, Wake Forest, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida State, Indiana, Georgia Southern, Maryland, Jacksonville, Western Illinois, Wichita State, Rhode Island, George Washington, Richmond, Liberty, Army and Binghamton.
According to the May 8 ratings in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, each of the top 15 seeds in this year's 27-team field at the NCAA East Regional are ranked among the Golfweek top 50, including nine in the top 25. Top-ranked Georgia heads the list, followed by No. 5 UCLA, No. 9 UNLV and 11th-ranked Georgia State. No. 12 North Carolina, 13th-ranked Texas Tech, No. 16 Wake Forest (the reigning East Regional champion), No. 19 Southern California and No. 24 Coastal Carolina round out the upper half of the poll.
In addition, the May 9 Golfstat rankings reveal 10 of this weekend's participants appearing in that service's Top 25. No. 1 Georgia sets the pace, followed by UCLA (sixth), UNLV (seventh), Georgia State (12th) and North Carolina (13th). Southern California (18th), Texas Tech (19th), Wake Forest (21st), Charlotte (23rd) and Coastal Carolina (25th) complete the Golfstat Top 25.
Head-To-Head
Notre Dame has faced more than half (14) of the
other 26 teams in the field at the NCAA East
Regional this season, sporting a combined 8-17
(.471) record against those squads. The
highest-seeded team in the regional that the
Irish have defeated this year is No. 5 seed North
Carolina, whom Notre Dame bested by four strokes
at the Coca-Cola Duke Golf Classic back in
October. The Irish also have wins over No. 12
seed Tennessee, 14th-seeded Florida State, No. 15
seed Indiana, No. 17 seed Georgia Southern
(twice), 21st-seeded Wichita State and No. 22
seed Rhode Island.
The Course
The Lake Nona Golf & Country Club is widely
considered one of the world's top 100 courses and
has played host to some of the top international
events on the calendar, including the World Cup
of Golf, the inaugural Solheim Cup, and more
recently, the Tavistock Cup, a matchup of the
resident professionals at Lake Nona and its
sister club, Isleworth, in a competition termed
one of the more exciting and intimate of its kind
in the world. PGA Tour veterans Tiger Woods
(Isleworth) and Ernie Els (Lake Nona) were among
the participants at last year's event.
Lake Nona is a par 72 Tom Fazio-designed
layout that covers 7,215 yards of central Florida
landscape that tests each of a player's
shot-making abilities. From the natural pine
forests and oak groves that line many of the
fairways, and the inclusion of three lakes on the
property (Buck Lake, Red Lake, Lake Nona), to the
numerous sizeable bunkers and the tricky
undulating greens, Lake Nona will present a
challenge to every team at this week's NCAA East
Regional.
Notre Dame At The NCAA Regionals
The Irish will be making their third appearance
in NCAA regional play and their first in the East
Regional since the current three-site, 27-team
regional format was introduced in 1989. In each
of the past two years, Notre Dame has competed in
the Central Regional, finishing 12th in 2004
(four shots off the cutline) and tied for 13th
last year (two strokes out of a playoff for NCAA
Championship advancement). During both instances,
the Irish found themselves tied for 10th place
and the final NCAA Championship berth with two
holes to play, only to have untimely bogeys hurt
their chances down the stretch.
Overall, Notre Dame will be competing in
NCAA postseason play for the 33rd time, having
won the NCAA title in 1944 at the famed Inverness
Club in Toledo, Ohio (also site of the 2009 NCAA
Championships). In addition, the Irish were the
NCAA runner-up in 1937, while placing third on
four occasions (1931, 1932, 1936, 1951) and among
the top 10 at the NCAA finals a total of 19 times
(most recently in 1964, when they were fourth at
the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs).
Noting The Irish In The NCAA Regionals
This weekend's NCAA East Regional in
Orlando will mark the furthest south Notre Dame
has ever traveled for NCAA postseason
competition. Previously, the Irish had visited
Knoxville, Tenn. (Holston Hills Golf Club) for
the 1965 NCAA Championships.
Of the five players in Notre Dame's
lineup for the NCAA East Regional, four of them
have previous experience in the event, including
three who have played in the tournament each of
past two years. Senior tri-captains Mark Baldwin
and Scott Gustafson, as well as junior
tri-captain Cole Isban, have made up the core of
the Irish travel squad for the past two NCAA
regionals, while senior Tommy Balderston competed
in the 2004 Central Regional. Freshman Josh
Sandman is the lone newcomer to regional play,
although he already has shown a penchant for
success in the postseason, having played a
pivotal role in Notre Dame's playoff victory at
the BIG EAST Championship last month.
The Irish fired a final-round 282 in last
year's NCAA Central Regional to vault themselves
into contention after slipping to 20th place
after the second day of competition. That 282
currently is tied for the fifth-lowest round in
school history and is the best ever for Notre
Dame in postseason play.
In each of the last two years, the Irish
have been seeded in the lower half of their NCAA
regional field, and yet they have performed much
higher than their given seed. In 2004, Notre Dame
was a No. 24 seed, but finished 12th for a +12
improvement that was topped by only one team
(Wichita State at +13) in the event. Last year,
the Irish were seeded 20th and rose to finish
tied for 13th place, two shots off the 10-team
cutline.
One of the key players on Notre Dame's
1944 NCAA Championship team, Tom Hanlon, has
remained a valuable supporter and mentor to
several of the members of this year's Irish
squad. Hanlon, a former assistant with both the
Notre Dame men's and women's golf teams who still
lives in the South Bend area, shared top
individual honors for the Irish at that 1944 NCAA
Championship, advancing to the quarterfinals,
before he joined the Navy later that year and
served in the Pacific during World War II. Upon
his return, he earned his bachelor's degree in
pre-med from Notre Dame in 1949. Current Notre
Dame head coach Jim Kubinski has called upon
Hanlon's wisdom and counsel at times during his
tenure and included him in the 2005-06 team photo
(which can be seen on page 8 of this year's Irish
media guide).
Last Time Out: The Maxwell
Notre Dame closed out its 2005-06 regular season
with a sixth-place finish in the 11-team field at
The Maxwell, which was played May 13-14 at the
Dornick Hills Golf Club in Ardmore, Okla. The
tournament used a unique scoring format that
counted the top four scores on each hole, rather
than at the conclusion of each round, which led
to much lower scores than would normally be shot
in a college event. For record-keeping purposes,
Notre Dame will recognize the actual on-course
score for the event, not the adjusted total,
giving the Irish a three-day mark of 13-over par
853 (290-282-281), which still goes down as the
second-best 54-hole mark in school history
(topped only by an 842 at last month's BIG EAST
Championship).
Senior tri-captain Mark Baldwin led Notre
Dame on the individual ladder for the fifth time
this season, tying for 16th place at one-over par
211 (68-70-73). Junior tri-captain Cole Isban
shared 29th place at four-over par 214
(74-68-72), while senior tri-captain Scott
Gustafson made a late run to tie for 36th place
at six-over par 216 (76-73-67), including a
career-low-tying final round. Freshman Josh
Sandman tied for 49th place at 10-over par 220
(72-74-74), while senior Tommy Balderston came
back from a first-round disqualification with
rounds of 71 and 69 to help the team effort.
Notre Dame Wins Its Third Consecutive BIG EAST Title
Notre Dame joins St. John's as the only
schools in the 26-year history of the BIG EAST
Championship to win three consecutive titles on
two separate occasions. The Irish recorded their
first hat trick from 1995-97, while St. John's
posted a pair of "four-peats" from 1981-84 and
1986-89.
Notre Dame was in third place, 12 strokes
back of tournament leader Louisville, heading
into the final round. The Irish then closed with
a school-record 272 (-16), including rounds of 66
(Mark Baldwin), 67 (Scott Gustafson) and 68
(Tommy Balderston) to force a sudden death
playoff. On the extra hole, freshman Josh
Sandman, whose final-round 76 was not counted,
sank a 10-foot birdie putt as the Irish finished
one-under to Louisville's one-over and won the
title.
The 12-shot comeback was the
second-largest in both Notre Dame and BIG EAST
Championship history. In 1995, the Irish erased a
13-stroke deficit to oust Connecticut in what was
then both a fall tournament and a 36-hole event.
Notre Dame's 12-stroke rally also was the
largest by any conference champion in any league
tournament this season. North Carolina was second
with an 11-shot comeback that resulted in a
shared Atlantic Coast Conference title with
Georgia Tech.
The sudden-death playoff was the first in
the 26-year history of the BIG EAST Championship.
In fact, the tournament had featured only one
other tie - in 1989, St. John's won its most
crown based upon the second-round score of its
fifth golfer (a tiebreaking procedure no longer
employed by the conference).
Notre Dame set school and BIG EAST
Championship scoring records for 18 (272, -16)
and 54 holes (842, -22). The prior Irish
single-round standard was 275, set at the 1999
Air Force Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame's best three-round score
had been 854 at the 2004 Nelson Invitational,
played on the shortened par-69 Stanford Golf
Course.
The Irish registered the third-lowest
final-round score (272) for any team in any
conference tournament this year, topped only by
matching scores of 269 by top-ranked Georgia and
No. 3 Florida at the Southeastern Conference
Championship (played on a par-70 course). In
fact, only two other teams had lower scores in
any round of their conference tourneys this year
- in the second round of the ACC Championship
(par-72 course), Georgia Tech fired a 267, while
Clemson had a 268.
Notre Dame Named Golfweek National Team Of The Week
The Irish achieved another first in the 77-year
history of their program on May 1 when they were
chosen as the Golfweek National Team of the Week.
The honor came following Notre Dame's memorable
12-shot comeback in the final round of the BIG
EAST Championship and subsequent playoff victory
over Louisville.
The Ranking File
One of the ways Notre Dame has been able to
inject itself into the conversation as one of the
nation's upper-echelon programs has been its play
against some of the other elite teams in the
country. This season, the Irish have defeated
seven Top 25 opponents (according to Golfweek),
including four in the past four tournaments
alone. What's more, the Irish have ousted 12
ranked teams since head coach Jim Kubinski
arrived on the Notre Dame campus in January 2005.
In 2005-06 alone, the Irish have
dispatched No. 3 Florida (Shoal Creek
Intercollegiate), No. 12 Tennessee (Administaff
Augusta State Invitational), No. 16 Texas (The
Prestige at PGA WEST), No. 16 Minnesota
(Boilermaker Invitational), No. 17 Alabama (Shoal
Creek), No. 23 Northwestern (Boilermaker) and No.
23 Tulsa (Maxwell). All rankings are taken from
the Golfweek index at the start of the tournament.
Measuring Stick
A good indication of the progress Notre Dame has
made in the short time Jim Kubinski has been head
coach can be found in the team's stroke average.
Currently at 292.42, it would shatter the old
school record by nearly six shots (298.29 in
1999-2000). In addition, the Irish presently have
three players with stroke averages at 74.00 or
lower (min. 13.5 rounds) - Cole Isban (72.82),
Mark Baldwin (72.97), and Scott Gustafson
(73.27), with freshman Josh Sandman (73.00)
needing just 1.5 more rounds to join that group.
In the 77-year history of the Notre Dame program,
the Irish have never had a trio score lower than
75.32 for an entire season (1999-2000 - Todd
Vernon at 74.18, Steve Ratay at 74.54 and Alex
Kent at 75.32).
One other item to watch is Notre Dame's
progress on a round-by-round basis in each
tournament. This season, the Irish are averaging
a 295.09 in their opening round before trimming
that score to 292.27 in round two. However, Notre
Dame has saved its best round for last, firing a
289.91 on average this season.
Tough Enough
When it comes to scheduling, the philosophy of
Notre Dame head coach Jim Kubinski centers around
playing in the nation's top tournaments on the
country's best courses in order to prepare his
team for postseason competition. According to the
May 8 Golfweek rankings, the Irish schedule was
ranked 57th in the nation, not including last
week's participation in The Maxwell. Upon closer
inspection, nine of the first 11 tournaments
Notre Dame has played this year are ranked among
the 60 toughest in the nation for the 2005-06
season by Golfweek, including five in the top 35.
Leading the way is the CordeValle Collegiate
(18th), followed by the Administaff Augusta State
Invitational (19th), Shoal Creek Intercollegiate
(27th), Gopher Invitational (34th) and Coca-Cola
Duke Classic (31st).
Some of the premier courses the Irish have played this year include: Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham (site of the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championships), PGA WEST in La Quinta, Calif. (site of numerous PGA Tour events in the past two decades), the TPC of Myrtle Beach (S.C.), and the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex/Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Ind. (site of three previous NCAA regionals/finals and host of the 2008 NCAA Championships).
Enter Sandman
For much of the 2005-06 season, freshman Josh Sandman was forced to the sidelines with a nagging back injury. However, the problem cleared up enough to allow the rookie to enter the Notre Dame lineup on April 1-2 at the Administaff Augusta State Invitational, and since then, the Greensboro, N.C., native has been a major contributor to Irish fortunes.
In just four tournaments this year, Sandman is posting a 73.00 stroke average, with four rounds coming in at par or better, including one in the 60s. He also has finished in the top 25 three times, peaking with a tie for second at the Boilermaker Invitational on April 8-9. Yet, his biggest contribution to date came on after his only discounted round of the season (76 in the final round at the BIG EAST Championship), when he knocked his difficult approach shot from a tough downhill lie near a fairway bunker within 10 feet of the pin and made the ensuing birdie putt to help Notre Dame win its third consecutive BIG EAST title.
Next Up For The Irish: NCAA Championships (May 31-June 3)
Should Notre Dame finish in the top 10 at this weekend's NCAA East Regional, the Irish would advance to the NCAA Championships, to be held May 31-June 3 on the Crosswater Course at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. It would be Notre Dame's first NCAA finals appearance in 40 years (and 31st overall trip to the NCAA Championships), well before the institution of the current regional format in 1989.
