May 5, 2008

COLUMBIA – South Carolina men’s golf earned the third seed in the NCAA East Regional, the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Committee announced tonight. The event, which runs May 15-17, will be played at Council Fire Golf Club in Chattanooga, Tenn. A total of 71 teams are in the NCAA field with the other two 27-team regionals to be played at Scarlet Golf Course in Columbus, Ohio, and Golf Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash. From each regional, 10 teams and two individuals not on advancing teams move on to the NCAA Championship, which will be played at the Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind.

No. 7 South Carolina is in an NCAA regional for the 17th time in school history with all but three of those appearances coming in the East Regional. The Gamecocks have advanced out of their regional 10 times, including the last two seasons. South Carolina won its first regional championship at the 2007 West Regional as three players claimed top-20 positions.

The Gamecocks are coming off a second-place finish at the SEC Championship, their best finish since 1998. Sophomore George Bryan IV was the top finisher, earning a share of second place. Senior Mark Anderson leads South Carolina on the season with a 72.04 stroke average. Both Bryan and Anderson earned first-team all-conference honors. The remaining three players that will represent the Gamecocks at the regional will be announced at a later date.

NCAA East Regional (Seeded in order)
1. Georgia
2. Charlotte (Atlantic 10 Champion)
3. South Carolina
4. Duke
5. Chattanooga (Southern Conference Champion)
6. Auburn
7. East Tennessee State
8. Michigan State (Big Ten Champion)
9. Mississippi
10. UAB (Conference USA Champion)
11. Virginia Tech
12. North Carolina State
13. Mississippi State
14. Georgia State (CAA Champion)
15. North Flordia (Atlantic Sun Champion)
16. UC Irvine (Big West Champion)
17. Augusta State
18. SMU
19. Middle Tennessee
20. Coastal Carolina (Big South Champion)
21. Memphis
22. Virginia
23. Western Carolina
24. Colorado State (Mountain West Champion)
25. New Mexico State (WAC Champion)
26. Western Illinois (The Summit League Champion)
27. Jackson State (SWAC Champion)

Individuals
1. Keegan Bradley, St. John’s (NY)
2. Jose Toledo New Orleans
3. Johnny Caldwell, South Alabama
4. Michael McGrady, Troy
5. Jon Curran, Vanderbilt
6. Grant Leaver, Austin Peay State