SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Mississippi State is slated to tee off as the No. 17 seed at the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Friday. The Bulldogs will be competing on the par-70, 7,289-yard Raptor Course of the Grayhawk Golf Club.
State is coming off its first regional championship in program history and will make its first NCAA Championship appearance since 2008. MSU is one of 30 teams and six individuals who will begin stroke play on Friday. The field will be cut to 15 teams after the third round before a final fourth round of stroke play decides the individual champion and which eight teams will advance to a match play bracket.
“This is why you play golf, for opportunities like this,” head coach Dusty Smith said. “Nothing is going to change with us. We need to focus on us and doing our job. This golf course demands your absolute best and will test us in every way. We look forward to the challenge.”
MSU’s lineup will consist of Ford Clegg, Ruan Pretorius, Garrett Endicott, Hunter Logan and Pedro Cruz Silva. Austin Vukovits will serve as an alternate for the tournament. It’s the same lineup that State rolled out for its regional victory two weeks ago.
Clegg finished in a tie for seventh with Logan at the Morgan Hill Regional, putting both players in a tie for the highest finish in a regional in program history. Clegg and Logan are also tied with each other for the second-most rounds of par or better by a Bulldog this season (20). It’s a single-season career high for Clegg.
Pretorius was the individual medalist at the Desert Mountain Invitational in March with a career-low 8-under 208. The graduate student has 19 rounds of par or better this season.
Endicott, a San Antonio, Texas, native, was awarded SEC All-Freshman honors and tabbed Second Team All-SEC. He has the most rounds of par or better this season (22), which ranks third in MSU single-season history.
Logan tied a career-high finish at the Schenkel Invitational in March, firing rounds in the 60s in the first and third rounds. His 10 rounds in the 60s this season leads the team and is tied for the second-most in MSU single-season history with Garrett Johnson (2018-19) and Peng Pichaikool (2017-18).
Cruz Silva tied with Endicott at the Morgan Hill Regional, finishing 11th. Five of his six…
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