UNT: the "Notre Dame of men's golf"

[NT80]

Golf: Mean Green rolls into NCAA golf regional

UNT needs top-10 finish to advance to nationals

05/15/2003

By Tim MacMahon / Staff Writer

The North Texas men’s golf team is feeling pretty good about itself entering the NCAA Central Regional.

UNT enters the regional, which will be played Thursday through Saturday at the Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, Kan., having won two of its last three tournaments. The Mean Green earned its bid by winning the Sun Belt team title.

"We’re walking in here as confident as anybody," said senior Zach Atkinson, who has a team-best average of 72.1 strokes per round. "That’s a huge factor. We’re bringing in a lot of momentum."

The Mean Green’s goal is to earn a bid to the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Stillwater, Okla. May 27-30. To do so, 19th-seeded UNT must finish among the top 10 teams this weekend.

"We feel like this is the toughest region of the three," said coach Jim Bob Jackson, who is in his second season at UNT. "It’s going to take a lot of patience out there. We’re going to have to drive the ball well and make a lot of pars. There aren’t a lot of birdies on this course."

UNT feels that it proved it could perform in clutch situations with its victory at the Sun Belt Championships last month. The Mean Green, which knew it needed to win the tournament to advance to regionals, blew away the field to win by 10 strokes.

UNT had four of the top 15 finishers at the Sun Belt Championships. Senior Brad Besler was the individual medalist, Atkinson placed third, senior Freddy Espericueta 10th and junior Brad Gibson 15th.

"That says a lot about our team," Gibson said. "We can perform under pressure. I think a big part of our success is that we feed off of each other. It’s really exciting to see each other do well, and we get excited when that happens."

UNT is no stranger to postseason success in golf. The school was dubbed the "Notre Dame of men’s golf" by one golf magazine after winning seven national championships — four NCAA and three NAIA — from 1949-55. The Sun Belt title is the 27th conference championship in the program’s proud history.

Jackson said the school’s golf tradition was one of the main factors in his decision to leave Sam Houston State after 13 successful seasons as the coach at his alma mater. He added that the topic of tradition is broached on a frequent basis with the team, which has heard tales of glory from former North Texas and PGA great Don January.

"We all know about the tradition," Atkinson said. "All of us have it in our heart to add to it."

[EagleChick03]

I wish the guys the best of luck. That would be fantastic if they can make it to the championships.

[NT80]

First round results from the SBC board:

NCAA golf results

[EagleChick03]

Wow...that's great they are in the top 10 right now.

I hope they can keep it up. It would be so exciting for them to get to the championship but even better for the school to have our name at the top.

Right now, UNT is ahead of UT...and thats the best part.

NT80, I think its just you and me when it comes to fans of the golf team....

[IronMan4]

You just wanna go to the celebration party.

[CMJ]

It would really be a return to glory if they could get to Nationals. We really have some terrific history in this sport.

[DeepGreen]

Take a look at todays rounds - lot of ++scores for opponents that where higher on the leaderboard yesterday. If I'm reading it correctly, UNT has not teed off and is tied with one other team for 4th place.

NCAA Golf

[NT80]

Take a look at todays rounds - lot of ++scores for opponents that where higher on the leaderboard yesterday.  If I'm reading it correctly, UNT has not teed off and is tied with one other team for 4th place.

NCAA Golf

It must be very windy today up there as all teams except Ok.St. have (+) scores.

[class84]

You guys have me scoreboard watching now. Anyway, it doesn't look like the best of starts, but it's early and still very cool to be number 1 in Texas for the time being.

This regional looks way more competitive than the other two, unfortunately.

[DeepGreen]

Right now we are tied for 14th, four shots away from the top 10. Here are the players' score cards today.

UNT Golf

[UNTLifer]

Well, we finished in a tie for 17th place 8 shots out of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. But, we still had a great year, and I am proud of the young men on this team. They did us proud.