PROVIDENCE, R.I. – No. 20 USF and UCF were each selected to compete in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, it was announced on Wednesday night. The two squads will be among the 14 teams competing at the Kissimmee Regional at the Reunion Resort May 14-16.
Additionally, two individuals – Houston’s Michael Perras and SMU’s McClure Meissner – were chosen to compete as individuals. Perras will compete at the College Station Regional at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, while Meissner will be part of the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla.
After notching the program’s fourth consecutive American Athletic Conference title, USF was seeded fourth in the Kissimmee Regional, matching the best in the Bulls’ history. USF is making its sixth consecutive trip to NCAA Regionals after capturing the American Athletic Conference Championship title in wire-to-wire fashion.
USF senior Claudio Correa captured The American's individual title this spring and has been a part of USF's past three NCAA runs. Cristian DiMarco is making his third NCAA postseason trip with the Bulls while fellow seniors Jimmy Jones and Priyanshu Singh will be making their second.
UCF earned its second straight berth to the NCAA Championship and the seventh time in head coach Bryce Wallor's nine-year tenure that the program is headed to an NCAA Regional Championship. In last year's regional, the Black and Gold squad was crowned champion with a team score of 863 (-1) and earned a trip to Nationals where they finished tied for 14th.
The Knights are coming off a third-place finish at the American Athletic Conference Championship where the team shot a three-day total of 865 (+13) on the par-71 course.
Houston’s Perras stands at No. 45 in the latest Golfstat individual national rankings and becomes one of just 17 players in program history to compete in three-plus NCAA Regionals. The 2017 American Athletic Conference medalist finished in a tie for eighth at the 2018 edition of The American Championsip.
Perras will face student-athletes from No. 1 seed Texas A&M, No. 2 seed Baylor, No. 3 seed Clemson, No. 4 seed Kentucky, No. 5 seed UCLA, No. 6 seed Mississippi, No. 7 seed South Carolina, No. 8 seed San Francisco, No. 9 seed Georgia, No. 10 seed Mississippi State, No. 11 seed UNC Wilmington, No. 12 seed Northern Colorado and No. 13 seed Bradley.
SMU’s Meissner finished in a tie for fifth at The American Championships and is the No. 9-ranked freshman in the country by GolfStat. The freshman logged three top-10 finishes and in the top-20 seven times during his first campaign with the Mustangs.
Eighty-one teams and 45 individuals are selected to compete in the six NCAA Men's Regional Championships. Thirty teams and six individuals will advance from regional sites to the national championships to be played May 25-30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma.. The Golf Channel will televise the final three days of the championship live.