AMERICUS, Ga. -- The fourth-ranked Georgia Southwestern State University men's golf team earned its fifth consecutive NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional bid and will be making its eighth appearance overall.
The tournament begins Thursday, May 9, at Chattahoochee Golf Club in Gainesville, Ga., and the University of North Georgia will serve as host. A total of 20 teams representing six conferences will compete to advance to the NCAA Division II Championships, May 21-25 at the Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge in Winter Garden, Fla. The top five teams and the top two student-athletes not with a team from each regional will advance to the finals, hosted by Rollins College and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission. It is, by far, the most difficult of the four regionals with 11 of the top 15 teams in the country battling for the five slotted finalist positions.
Georgia Southwestern enters the tournament ranked fourth in the latest National Collegiate Golf Rankings from Clippd coming off a runner-up finish at the Peach Belt Championship to close out April.
The Hurricanes won back-to-back events this spring, with the first being the Bobcat Intercollegiate that was hosted by Georgia College and State University. GSW shot an 11-over 851 overall, had three golfers finish in the Top 10 and also finished better than four teams ranked in the Top 10 in the computer rankings, including No. 1 North Georgia. The Hurricanes followed that performance with a first place finish at the Argonaut Invitational to open April, beating the field by six strokes with a 16-under 848. In addition to the two wins in the spring, GSW claimed the Hurricane Invitational to close out the fall schedule back in October, where they shot a 3-over 867 overall to defeat Lee University, ranked No. 9 at the time, by three strokes.
The Hurricanes will have some familiarity with course for the NCAA regional as they played the par-72, 7,166-yard course back in September as part of the UNG Mizuno Intercollegiate and finished fourth of 17 teams.
GSW boasts two players currently ranked in the Top 50 Golfstat player rankings No. 34 Erik Fogel and No. 40 Payne Sells.
Fogel was a first team Peach Belt All-Conference selection. He ranks sixth in the conference with a 71.8 scoring average this season. The Stockholm, Sweden native has finished in the top 10 of five of nine events completed. He had a pair of fourth place finishes that included the Hurricane Invitational in October and the Southeastern Collegiate in March, the latter earned him Peach Belt Golfer of the Week on March 18. Fogel becomes the Hurricanes 10th Peach Belt All-Conference First Team selection and the program's first since the 2019-20 season.
Sells claimed his first all-conference honor a week after earning his first PBC Player of the Week award. Sells, a native of Perry, Ga., was named to the second team. He has four top 10 finishes in 10 events. Sells won the Argonaut Invitational on April 9, shooting rounds of 66-71-70 to finish at 9-under-par 207 for his first collegiate victory. The senior tied for the low round of the tournament with 66 in his opener.
Joao Costa ranks second on the team with a 72.28 scoring average. The junior from Carcavelos, Portugal has three Top 10 finishes in six events.
Jack Tharrington a senior from Boca Raton, Fla., has four Top 10 finishes this year and fired a low round of 6-under 65 back in October at the Cateechee Invitational in Hartwell, Ga. Tharrington led GSW at the Peach Belt Conference Championship with a ninth place finish.
Mateo Quiroga a sophomore from Buenos Aires, Argentina, turned in his best finish at the Battle in the Desert back in February in Borrego Springs, Calif., where he was the runner-up out of 80 golfers. Most recently, Quiroga tied for 18th at the PBC Championship.
Five teams from the PBC were selected to the NCAA tournament along with the winners from the SAC and the Conference Carolinas to comprise the Southeast Region representatives. Below is a list of all schools receiving bids to the super regional, includes a NCAA Division II ranking according to the latest National Collegiate Golf Rankings from Clippd (#).
NCAA Southeast Region:
- (1) North Georgia [Peach Belt Conference]
- (2) Lincoln Memorial [South Atlantic Conference]
- (4) Georgia Southwestern
- (7) University of South Carolina Aiken
- (11) Lander
- (15) Barton [Conference Carolinas]
- (21) Coker
- (22) Columbus State
- (27) Wingate
- Lenoir-Rhyne
NCAA Southeast Region:
- (12) Nova Southeastern
- (10) Lee
- (14) Florida Southern
- (9) West Florida [Gulf South Conference]
- (13) Saint Leo
- (24) Barry [Sunshine State Conference]
- (30) Union (Tenn.)
- (23) Shorter
- University of Tampa
- Miles [Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference]