The No. 9-ranked Baylor men's golf team begins the 2017 NCAA Tournament at the Stanford (Calif.) Regional, which runs Monday through Wednesday at Stanford Golf Course.
Host Stanford is the No. 1 seed at the Regional, followed by No. 2 Baylor, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 5 Pepperdine, No. 6 North Carolina, No. 7 North Florida, No. 8 BYU, No. 9 Houston, No. 10 Ohio State, No. 11 UC Santa Barbara, No. 12 Sacramento State and No. 13 South Dakota State. The one through six seeds are all among Golfstat’s top 35 nationally, and 11 teams in the regional are ranked among the nation’s top 70.
Baylor is making its 20th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and seeking its seventh NCAA Championships berth. If the Bears finish among the top five teams at the Regional, they’ll advance to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. It would be the second back-to-back Championships berths in program history, with 1966 and 1967 the only previous consecutive appearances. Baylor also played in the NCAA Championships in 1960, 2002, 2010 and 2016.
The three-day, 54-hole Regional is on the par-70, 6,727-yard Stanford Golf Course. In addition to the top five teams, the lowest scoring individual from a non-advancing team will also move on to the Championships, which run May 26-31.
BU has competed against six of its 12 Stanford Regional opponents during the 2016-17 season, and the Bears have a combined 8-3 head-to-head record against those teams – Oklahoma (0-2), Georgia Tech (1-0), Pepperdine (1-0), North Carolina (1-1), Houston (4-0) and Ohio State (1-0).
The same five players have been in Baylor’s lineup all season. For the Stanford Regional, sophomore Braden Bailey is in the No. 1 spot, followed by junior Matthew Perrine, freshman Cooper Dossey, sophomore Garrett May and senior Hunter Shattuck. Bailey, Perrine and Dossey combined to give Baylor three All-Big 12 Team members for the first time in program history, and Dossey became the second Baylor player to win Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
Baylor is in the first group off the tee for Monday’s first round, and the Bears are paired with players from Stanford and Oklahoma. Shattuck is up first 10:30 a.m. CT, and he’ll be followed in 11-minute intervals by May, Dossey, Perrine and Bailey, respectively.
Head coach Mike McGraw has led Baylor to NCAA Regionals in each of his three seasons leading the program. The Bears advanced to the 2016 NCAA Championships by tying for fourth place at the NCAA Kohler Regional a season ago, earning the sixth NCAA Championships berth in program history and first since 2010.
NCAA Stanford Regional Seeds (Golfstat ranking)
1. Stanford (4)
2. Baylor (9)
3. Oklahoma (15)
4. Georgia Tech (21)
5. Pepperdine (27)
6. North Carolina (33)
7. North Florida (41)
8. BYU (45)
9. Houston (51)
10. Ohio State (58)
11. UC Santa Barbara (66)
12. Sacramento State (107)
13. South Dakota State (196)
