June 17, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Warren Golf Course at the University of Notre Dame has been chosen as one of six host sites for regional play in the 2010 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships, it was announced this week by the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Committee. The 54-hole tournament will take place over three days from May 20-22, 2010, with a practice round scheduled for May 19, on the par-70, 7,023-yard layout located on the northeast corner of the Notre Dame campus.
“We are incredibly honored and proud to be chosen as the host site for a 2010 NCAA regional,” Irish head coach Jim Kubinski said. “The Warren Golf Course is one of the finest college layouts in the nation and we are excited to be able to bring an elite field to town for the regional. This selection also should give our team added incentive as we look to build upon our championship tradition here at Notre Dame.”
The other host sites for the 2010 NCAA regionals will be: Georgia Tech (Capital City Club in Alpharetta, Ga.); San Diego State (Carlton Oaks Golf Course in San Diego, Calif.); Texas A&M (Traditions Golf Club in College Station, Texas); Washington (Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.), and Yale (Yale University Golf Course in New Haven, Conn.).
“The committee was very pleased with the bids we received and the caliber of golf courses these sites represent,” said Darin Spease, the chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Committee and senior associate director of athletics at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. “The experience for our student-athletes is of utmost important to the committee, and we feel these courses will offer unforgettable championship events for them.”
This will mark the second time that the Warren Golf Course has played host to an NCAA men’s golf regional. In 2005, the NCAA Central Regional was contested there, with Augusta State carding a nine-over par 849 to win the title by nine strokes over Oklahoma State. Notre Dame participated in that regional as the BIG EAST champion and finished tied for 13th at 877 (+37), two strokes shy of a playoff for the 10th and final qualifying berth for the NCAA finals.
Next year’s regional will be different than the previous NCAA tournament held at Notre Dame, as the NCAA Men’s Golf Committee doubled the number of regional sites to six prior to the 2009 championship. Thus, the regional fields at each site are smaller (13-14 teams, plus 5-10 individual qualifiers) and there are fewer NCAA finals berths to be had (five per site, plus 1-2 individual qualifications).
The Warren Golf Course is no stranger to championship competition. Since the course opened on May 1, 2000, it also has played host to three U.S. Amateur Championship qualifiers, three Western Amateur Championship qualifiers and eight BIG EAST Championships (five men, three women). In addition, a handful of junior tour events and other area competitions have been held there.
Designed by the Austin, Texas-based architectural firm of Coore and Crenshaw, headed by Bill Coore and PGA Tour veteran Ben Crenshaw, the Warren Golf Course features a classic, walkable layout with narrow, tree-lined fairways and small greens, similar to Irish and American courses of the late 19th and early 20th century. It already has earned numerous awards during its brief tenure, most recently having been cited in Golfweek’s 2008 listing of “America’s Best Courses” in which the Warren layout was tabbed as the second-best public access course in the state of Indiana. Golf Digest, GOLF Magazine and Golf & Travel Magazine also have selected the Warren Golf Course for high honors since it opened nine years ago.
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