Iowa Selected To Notre Dame Regional

May 10, 2010

Video interview with Mark Hankins

IOWA CITY, IA — The University of Iowa men’s golf team was selected Monday evening to compete in NCAA Regional competition at Notre Dame, IN. Teams were selected to join one of six regional sites, with 13 or 14 teams competing at each site, May 20-22. The Notre Dame regional will be played at the Warren Golf Course on the Notre Dame campus.

This marks the second consecutive year that Iowa has been invited to postseason play, a feat the Hawkeyes had not accomplished since 1960.

The invitation comes after Iowa finished second at the Big Ten Championships, its best finish since winning the league title in 1992. The Hawkeyes fired a four round total of 1157 (+21), the third-lowest 72-hole total in program history.

“These guys have worked hard this season,” said coach Mark Hankins. “We’ve played extremely well in some tournaments and mediocre in others, so we haven’t been super consistent. At the same time, I think the five guys that have played for us the last couple weeks, from top to bottom, we’ve used them all. It’s been kind of a team effort and hopefully that will continue at regionals.”

The Hawkeyes competed at the Warren Golf Course during the 2009 fall season, where Iowa finished tied for sixth in the 15-team Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic. Juniors Vince India and Brad Hopfinger finished in the top 15 individually after firing totals of 218 (+8) and 219 (+9), respectively.

In order of their respective seedings, the Notre Dame Regional will consist of Stanford, Florida, Florida State, Duke, LSU, North Carolina State, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana, Virginia Tech, Murray State, Detroit and St. Francis.

Iowa is one of six Big Ten programs advancing to regional competition. In addition to the four programs at the Notre Dame Regional, Penn State is the 11th seed at the Yale Regional and Illinois is the third seed at the San Diego State Regional.

The top five teams and top individual, not on a qualifying team, in each region, advance to the NCAA Championships, held June 1-6 on The Honors Course in Chattanooga, TN.

Iowa advanced through regional competition a year ago, placing 17th in the nation at the NCAA Championships. Four of Iowa’s five players from the 2009 post season line-up will compete at Notre Dame.