MADISON, Wis. — It’s been a big day for Wisconsin men’s golf as two Badgers — senior Griffin Barela and sophomore Cameron Huss — earned individual bids to the NCAA regional tournament in Columbus, Ohio at Ohio State Golf Club. Barela earned a No. 2 seed and Huss earned a No. 8 seed among the individual entries at the 54-hole tournament held Monday, May 16 – Wednesday, May 18.
Barela was also named as a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First Team earlier on Wednesday.
Barela and Huss are only the fifth and sixth Badgers in program history to earn individual NCAA invitations, joining Ron Wuensche (1991), Jon Turcott (2002), Dan Woltman (2009) and Barela’s former teammate Jordan Hahn (2019). This marks the first time that Wisconsin has earned two individual bids in the same season. The Badgers last qualified as a team (5 golfers) in 2008 when Jordan Elsen, Jeff Kaiser, Tyler Obermueller, Woltman and Danny Zimmerman qualified to the West Regional (304-290-300=894). Woltman advanced individually to the NCAA Championship that season, finishing T67th (87-71-77=230) but missed the cut.
“Really excited for Griffin and Cam,” said Wisconsin head coach Michael Wilson. “We knew Griffin was going to get in. He had a great year and deserved it. Being a first-team all-conference selected by every coach is pretty amazing.
“And I was texting with Cameron last night, saying ‘You’re going to either be last one in or first one out’ … I’m really excited for him to get in.”
A Lakewood, Colorado native, Barela has finished among the top 25 in all nine tournaments this season, including three top-10 placings and tied for sixth overall (69-72-78=219) at the Big Ten Championship this past week.
Among his top finishes, he placed third at both the Badger Invitational and the Rich Harvest Farms Intercollegiate. Barela also led the Badgers with the lowest season average with a 71.07 — setting a career best as a Badger — and has been under par in all of his competition finishes. Barela’s current season average of 71.07 stands as the men’s golf program’s best in school history, topping Hahn’s previous record of 71.59 set in 2019. Barela’s career season average of 73.02 also edges Hahn (73.09) again for program best.
For Huss, the NCAA bid caps a season of collegiate firsts…
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