May 24, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's golf team begins play in the NCAA Championship, hosted by Northern Illinois University, Friday at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Teams will tee off beginning at 7:45 a.m. ET in opening round action with live stats available on Golfstat.com.
NCAA NOTES
- This is Penn State's first trip to the NCAA Championships since 2010 and the program's 13th appearance overall.
- The Lions qualified by defeating four higher seeded teams and placing fifth in the NCAA Regional hosted by the University of Washington at the Aldarra Golf Club in Sammamish, Washington. The Nittany Lions were +11 for the three rounds, one shot behind Alabama and Florida State.
- Junior Cole Miller (New Tripoli, Pa.) won the individual title at the NCAA Regional with a seven-under 206, shooting 69-69-68 over the three rounds and three shots ahead of the second place finishers.
- This will be the fifth appearance in the NCAA Finals under Coach Nye (1994, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2017).
- Penn State has 35 overall appearances in postseason NCAA action, dating back to 1947.
TOURNAMENT AND COURSE INFO
The 30-team championship, along with six individual competitors will compete on the 7,300-yard par-72 course. Finals play consists of three days of stroke play on Friday, May 26 through Sunday, May 28 (54 holes), after which the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing team will be determined.
That is followed by a final day of 18 holes of stroke play on Monday, May 29 to determine the top eight teams that will advance to match play as well as the 72-hole individual champion. The team national champion will be determined by a match-play format that will consist of quarterfinals and semifinals conducted on Tuesday, May 30, followed by finals on Wednesday, May 31.
A LOOK AT THE COURSE
Since opening in 1999, Rich Harvest Farms has been a premiere destination for golfers from all over the world. The ultra-private, members only facility is home to the Kids Golf Foundation of Illinois. Rich Harvest Links is also home of the Northern Illinois University Huskies Men's & Women's Golf Teams. The course has earned many distinct honors including consistently being named one of Rolex's "World's Top 1,000 Golf Courses" and Golf Digest's "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses." Golf Digest also honored Rich Harvest Farms in 1999, by naming it the 5th Best New Private Course in the United States. Rich Harvest Farms is proud of its prestigious list of amateur and professional golf tournaments both past and future.
NITTANY LION NOTES
- The Nittany Lions finished fifth at the Washington Regional advancing to their first appearance in the NCAA Championship since 2010. Junior Cole Miller shot his third consecutive sub-par round, a 3-under 68 to win the individual championship at 7-under. Miller is the second Nittany Lion to win an NCAA Regional (TJ Howe, 2010)
- Penn State won four events in 2016-17 and finished in the top-5 in all but two. The Lions won three of four events to start the spring, capturing the Athletic Directors' Trophy against West Virginia, the Challenge at Champions against Michigan State and the 14-team Seminole Intercollegiate. They also won their home tournament, the Rutherford Intercollegiate, sharing the title with Georgetown.
- Junior Cole Miller and sophomore Charles Huntzinger combined for six individual tournament titles out of the team's 10 events (not including match play).
- The Nittany Lions finished with two golfers in the top-6 and shot their lowest round of the Big Ten Championship to finish in a three-way tie for fourth with Iowa and Purdue in the 14-team field in Baltimore, Maryland April 28-30. Sophomore Charles Huntzinger shot his only subpar round in a 3-under 67 to finish at 2-under for the tournament after back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18. Huntzinger finished tied for 4th place with five birdies and two bogies on the day.
- Junior Cole Miller and sophomore Charles Huntzinger combined for six individual tournament titles out of the team's 11 events (not including match play).
- Junior Cole Miller and sophomore Charles Huntzinger were the only golfers on the current roster who had competed in an NCAA Regional prior to the Washington Regional. Huntzinger shot a 2-over 73 to finish with a score of 220 and tied for 27th.
- The Nittany Lions finished with two golfers in the top-6 and shot their lowest round of the Big Ten Championship to finish in a three-way tie for fourth with Iowa and Purdue in the 14-team field in Baltimore, Maryland April 28-30. Sophomore Charles Huntzinger shot his only subpar round in a 3-under 67 to finish at 2-under for the tournament after back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18. Huntzinger finished tied for 4th place with five birdies and two bogies on the day.
- A pair of Penn State golfers were recognized with Big Ten honors in a vote of the league's coaches. Sophomore Charles Huntzinger was a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten honoree, while junior Cole Miller earned second-team honors and the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. One of three unanimous first-team selections, Huntzinger is the sixth First Team All-Big Ten honoree in Penn State's history and the first since 2010.
- The Nittany Lion men's golf program is one of 18 Penn State programs to achieve an Academic Progress Rate (APR) score of 1,000 for the 2015-16 year, the NCAA announced recently. The program's multi-year APR score moved up seven points from a year ago.
- Cody Cox was acknowledged for having the team's highest GPA at Penn State's annual end-of-year awards ceremony -- The Nittanys. A senior from Milford, Pennsylvania, Cox graduated May 6 with a degree in Film & Video Production. Fellow senior Christian Elliott, a product of Port Perry, Ontario, also earned his degree in finance.