UNM men's golf gets a 4-seed in Bryan Regional

The Lobos are headed to Aggieland.

Bryan Regional

May 18-20

Traditions Club (Texas A&M)

Bryan, Texas

Wednesday, New Mexico men’s golf was announced as the 4-seed in the Bryan Regional of the NCAA Division I Championship, one of six regionals scheduled for May 18-20.

Hosted by Texas A&M, UNM will play as an at-large entrant at Traditions Club, a par-72, 7,146-yard Nicklaus design. The Lobos will compete with 13 other teams – including top-seeded Texas, led by former UNM coach John Fields – for one of five qualifying spots at the NCAA finals (May 29-June 3).

Third-year head coach Jake Harrington said he’s previously coached tournaments at Traditions, calling it a “really hard test of golf” and a course that forces golfers to hit their targets.

“It’s tight off the tee,” said Harrington, who has advanced to a regional in all three seasons at UNM. “If you get off the beaten path, you get into a lot of trouble.”

UNM’s selection comes a day after a narrow loss to UNLV at the Mountain West Championship. After starting the day eight strokes back of the eventual league champs, the Lobos closed with 20-under-par 268 – the second-best final round in conference championship history – to come from behind and force a one-hole playoff.

UNM also played all three rounds of the Mountain West Championship without Mesa Falleur, the Lobos’ number-one golfer. Harrington said he made the decision to hold the senior out with back soreness, and expects him to be ready for a regional appearance.

Falleur, the Lobos’ highest-ranked NCAA golfer, previously dealt with back soreness at the start of the season.

“It’s just one of those things; we didn’t wanna stress it,” Harrington added. “Regionals are obviously the most important thing (and) if we had to sacrifice one of them, it was gonna be (the conference championship). Regionals is the biggest tournament of the year and not to say we didn’t want to win conference, (because) we did.

“We wanted to win more than anybody, but I wasn’t gonna jeopardize Mesa’s future if he wasn’t 100%.”

The one silver lining of missing Falleur? Harrington feels it “battle tested” his lineup, one already known to be among the program’s deepest in recent memory.

Consider: Thayer Plewe and Wyatt Provence both tied for eighth place at the Mountain West Championship, just the second top 10 finish for either this season. Emil Albers also finished tied for 12th at 8 under par, his first tournament in the red since September.

“We’re going to take some confidence out of it … We just started off too slow, and we know that and we need to fix that because you can’t spot teams at regionals that many shots,” Harrington said. “It’s a lesson learned and one that we’re going to take to heart and really drive home.”

NMSU: The Aggies are sending one individual to a regional.