W&J Men’s Golf Claims PAC Title; Receives Bid To NCAA Tournament
WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College men’s golf team secured a trip to the 2012 NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championship on Monday after the final two rounds of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship were cancelled due to poor weather conditions.
As a result, the 2012 PAC golf team titles and postseason award winners have been determined exclusively by the 36-hole results of the 2011 PAC Fall Golf Invitational, which took place September 26-27, 2011 at Oak Tree Country Club in West Middlesex, Pa. Traditionally, the PAC team champions are determined by a 72-hole total that combines the 36-hole fall results with the 36-hole spring results. The 36-hole spring championship was scheduled to be played at Cedarbrook Golf Club in Belle Vernon, Pa., for the first time this spring.
The Presidents (600 strokes) were awarded the automatic bid, as they owned a five-shot lead over Saint Vincent (605) during the fall championship.
The conference title is a PAC-record 16th for W&J men’s golf and the third in four years under Head Coach Sean Dove. Dove was also selected as PAC Men’s Coach of the Year for the third time in his career (5th overall, including two woman’s COY awards).
The Presidents will be making their second-straight trip to the national tournament and fifth overall (2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012). The tournament will be held May 15-18 at the Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., a town 40 miles northwest of Orlando. The Mission Inn Resort & Club also hosted the 2005 NCAA Division III Championship.
Individually, sophomores Colin Izzo (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) and Brian Omslaer (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) totaled 150 shots during the fall to tie for fourth and earn First Team All-PAC status.
Freshman Matt Long (East Stroudsburg, Pa./Notre Dame) tied for eighth place with 151 strokes and was awarded Second Team All-PAC status.
Saint Vincent sophomore Sam Cline was honored as the 2012 PAC Player of the Year after carding 145 strokes during the fall tournament.
In 2006, the Red & Black made their first-ever appearance as an at-large team and placed 19th at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln, Nebraska, by carding 1,271 strokes as a team. Two years later, W&J tied for 24th place with a two-round team score of 648 strokes at Chateau Elan in Braselton, Georgia. The Presidents’ last appearance came in 2009 when W&J placed 14th at the PGA Village in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, with a (+73) performance (1,225 strokes) for the tournament. The 2009 squad was the only team to make the cut after reaching as high as 11th in the team standings.
Last year, W&J took 27th place in the 40-team field at the Grandover Resort in North Carolina with a two-day score of 615. The NCAA instituted a cut rule for the first time last year and the Presidents missed the final two rounds by 15 shots.
