Field Announced for 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship

The NCAA Division III Men's Golf Committee has announced the complete field of 216 participants that will compete in the 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships on May 14-17 at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky. The 2019 championships will be hosted by Transylvania University. 

Among the 42 going to Keene Trace next week is Webster University as the nine-time St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Gorloks earned an automatic spot in the championships by virtue of winning the SLIAC Championships on April 22-23 at WeaverRidge Golf Club in Peoria, Ill. At this year's SLIAC Championships, Webster shot a 54-hole total of 889 as a team to capture its third straight title by 73 shots over runner-up Fontbonne, who carded a 962 for 54 holes. The 73 shot margin is the largest in the history of the SLIAC Championships as the previous largest winning margin was 43 shots in 2003 as Webster won the title with a 907 over Maryville, who finished second with a 950. Ironically, current Webster head coach Andrew Belsky was a senior on that 2003 Gorloks team.

Webster will be making its third straight and seventh overall trip to the NCAA National Championships and is looking to make the cut to the final 18 teams after the first two days of competition in the 72-hole event that will be held at the Keene Track Golf Club. At last season's national championships, Webster missed the cut and finished in 27th place out of 42 teams, which came one season after making the cut of 18 teams and finishing in 17th place overall. 

The Gorloks were one of 32 schools that earned automatic qualification into the championships In addition to the 32 automatic qualifiers from eligible conferences, three teams - Carnegie Mellon, Emory and Southwestern (Texas) - were selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification, while the final seven teams selected - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Guiliford, Hampden-Sydney, Methodist, North Carolina Wesleyan, Redlands and Saint John's (Minn.) - are from Pool C, which are institutions from automatic qualifying conferences that were not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams.

Along with selecting 42 teams for the championships, the committee also selected six individuals that are not from one of the 42 teams selected for the championships. Those six individuals selected were Berry's Preston DeSantis, Greensboro's Scott Campbell, Hardin-Simmons' Luke Smith, McMurry's Brendon Lowrance, Texas Lutheran's Colin Uecker, and Williams' Sam Goldenring.

This year's championship field features 19 of the 25 teams, including every team ranked in the Top 17, that were ranked in the most recent Bushnell/GCAA Coaches' Poll that was released this past Friday qualified into this year's tournament. In addition, four of the 23 teams that received votes also qualified into this year's championship field. 

The 42 teams and six individual selections will play two days (36 holes) of stroke play beginning on Tuesday, May 14. After 36 holes of competition, the field will be cut to the Top 18 teams and top six individuals not on one of those 18 teams. Those remaining 18 teams and six individuals will then play another two days (36 holes) of stroke play for a total of 72 holes. The top team in the standings at the conclusion of 72 holes will be the national champion, while the top individual in the field will be crowned as the individual medalist. 

Last season, Methodist captured is 12th national title in school history as they won by 11 strokes over runner-up Washington and Lee. Brian Peccie of Washington and Lee earned medalist honors after a three-hole playoff with Logan Young of Concordia-Texas. Peccie and Young both shot 3-under 285 for the tournament before the playoff, where it took three extra holes to settle on a winner. The 2018 championships were played at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C., and were hosted by both Guilford College and the Greensboro Sports Commission.

Methodist and Cal State-Stanislaus, who is now competing at the NCAA Division II level, have won the most Division III national titles in men's golf with 12 apiece. Other than Methodist, only four other current Division III member has won multiple national titles - Oglethorpe (2012, 2009), Greensboro (2011, 2000), Guilford (2005, 2002) and St. John's (Minn.) (2008, 2007). 

The pairings for the first round have yet to be announced as the teams will be paired in threesomes and will tee off the first two days from both the No. 1 and No. 10 tees at Keene Trace. 

Listed below are the teams and individuals that have advanced to the 2019 NCAA D-III Men's Golf National Championships:

Automatic qualification berths (32)

Pool B berths (3)
Carnegie-Mellon
Emory
Southwestern (Texas)

Pool C berths (7)
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.)
Guiliford
Hampden-Sydney
Methodist
North Carolina Wesleyan
Redlands
Saint John's (Minnesota)

Individuals (6)
Preston DeSantis, Berry (Ga.)
Scott Campbell, Greensboro
Luke Smith, Hardin-Simmons
Brendon Lowrance, McMurry (Texas)
Colin Uecker, Texas Lutheran
Sam Goldenring, Williams

STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION