Michigan State men's golf falters in final round, fails to qualify at Eagle Eye NCAA regional
BATH TWP. — The Michigan State men's golf team's seven-stroke lead for an NCAA finals qualifying spot evaporated quickly.
And once the Spartans fell behind, they were never able to catch up.
No.10-seeded MSU struggled in the final round of the NCAA Regional at Eagle Eye Golf Club, shooting 10-over par to finish at 1-under and in seventh place, nine shots behind Texas, which finished fifth. The top five teams advance to the NCAA Championships, from May 27-June 1 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
No. 2 seed Florida trailed MSU by seven strokes entering the final round but outshot the Spartans by 18 strokes, carding an 8-under final day at finish 12-under and in fourth place.
"It's hard, you've got to play well for three days and I thought we played well for about one and a half," MSU coach Casey Lubahn said. "I'm disappointed for the guys, but I'm proud that they were in it. This isn't the best team we've had in a decade, but they scrapped to get into the tournament and put on a show for the hometown crowd."
Senior Drew Hackett put together the best round of the day for the Spartans at 2-under, 1-under for the regional. August Meekhof finished at even par for the tournament after shooting 3-over on Wednesday. Senior Troy Taylor, who was tied for sixth overall at 5-under heading into Wednesday, struggled to a 6-over 77 in the final round to finish at 1-over par.
Ashton McCulloch and Bradley Smithson rounded out the MSU squad as both shot 6-over for the tournament.
Taylor, the lone senior who will not return next year, was emotional walking off the ninth hole after finishing out his final round of golf as a Spartan.
"Troy was pretty down walking off and he's been a part of this program for five years and has been an awesome addition to it," Hackett said. "Tonight, we are going to go celebrate his career and try to make it easier for him to be done with college golf."
No. 6-seeded Georgia won the regional at 29-under par. The Bulldogs were led by Ben Van Wyk, who was the individual medalist at 10-under. Illinois, ranked No. 3 nationally, finished second, followed by Oregon, Florida and defending national champion Texas.
"It has to be a building block, I thought last year we should've won the Big Ten and didn't and then we had an awful showing at regionals and we came back and had what I would say was a bad summer," Lubahn said. "This needs to be the trigger for us to have a good summer, because this was close. I'm hoping they'll see that we played right with Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and we can be one of those schools."
The event marked the Spartans' sixth regional appearance in the last seven seasons.
Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @Nathaniel_Bott
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State men's golf: Spartans falter in final round of regional
