May 25, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
On the Tee: Arizona opens play at the 2011 NCAA Championships, May 31-June 5, at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. ... The Wildcats appear in the NCAA Championships for the 27th time in school history and the 23rd time in the last 25 seasons under head coach Rick LaRose ... In 26 previous appearances, Arizona has one national championship to its credit (1992) and six top-five finishes ... Since 1993, UA ranks fourth nationally with 17 NCAA Championship appearances in those 19 seasons.
The Rankings: The Wildcats are ranked 60th in the current (May 22) Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, and were receiving votes in the most recent (May 18) Golf World/Nike Coaches Poll. Individually, senior Tarquin MacManus was the top-ranked Wildcat nationally, checking in at No. 132 on the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. Jonathan Khan was next at No. 198.
The Probable Arizona Lineup:
Scoring Top Low
Golfer Yr. Avg. 10/20 Round Rounds
Tarquin MacManus Sr. 72.61 5/2 65 41
Jonathan Khan Sr. 73.58 3/2 67 40
Erik Oja Fr. 73.76 1/3 67 38
Stefan Cox Sr. 73.62 1/1 67 29
Juan Pablo Hernandez So. 74.35 1/2 69 31
A Look at the 2011 NCAA Men's Golf Championships: Oklahoma State University hosts 54 holes of stroke play and three rounds of match play over five days as part of the 114th NCAA Championships at Karsten Creek Golf Club, a par-72, 7,416-yard layout. Arizona is seeded 29th and has tee times on hole No. 1 from 8:40-9:20 a.m. CDT on the first day of the event. All told, 30 teams and six individuals fill out the 156-man field. Here is the field listed by seed: Oklahoma State (1), UCLA (2), Alabama (3), Georgia Tech (4), Florida (5), Augusta State (6), San Diego State (7), Texas A&M (8), Illinois (9), Louisiana State (10), Texas (11), Georgia (12), Iowa (13), Duke (14), Michigan (15) USC (16), Arkansas (17), California (18), San Diego (19), North Carolina State (20), Oklahoma (21), Arizona State (22), Ohio State (23), Tennessee (24), Kent State (25), Kennesaw State (26), Pepperdine (27), Northwestern (28), Arizona (29), and Colorado State (30). Individuals include Jason Millard, Middle Tennessee State (1); Jace Long, Missouri (2); Lee Bedford, Wake Forest (3); Geoff Gonzalez, Cal Poly (4); Sebastian Soderberg, Coastal Carolina (5); and Matt Hansen, UC Davis (6). Live scoring of the event will be available at www.golfstat.com.
Head Coach Rick LaRose . . . is in his 33rd season at the helm of the Arizona golf program, and in that span has established the Wildcats as one of the nation's elite programs. The only college coach to win both a men's (1992) and women's (1996) NCAA Championship, LaRose's teams have won a combined eight NCAA Regionals, six Pac-10 crowns and three Rolex Match Play titles. In NCAA Championship play, he also has six third-place finishes, a fifth-place and two sixth-place efforts to his credit. Since 1978, his men's teams have won 61 tournaments and produced 47 All-Americans. LaRose, who has coached two U.S. Amateur champions, was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame on Jan. 22, 2003, and the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame on Nov. 23, 2009. He is assisted by Andy Barnes.
Last Time Out: San Diego State led wire to wire in winning the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Arizona Regional May 21 in Tucson, Ariz., but the real drama of the day was in the battle for the fifth and final qualifying spot. Arizona's Tarquin MacManus registered birdies on holes 15, 16 and 17, and sophomore Juan Pablo Hernandez added one of his own on 18 to help the host Wildcats (844/-8) turn a two-shot deficit into a one-shot advantage over sixth-place Washington (845/-7). MacManus' heroics led the way for Arizona as he tied for seventh place individually at four-under 209. It was his fifth top-10 finish of the season and the third time MacManus has posted at top-10 effort at the NCAA regional in four career appearances. MacManus was joined in the top 20 by Hernandez, who tied for 14th place at two-under 211. It was Hernandez's low tournament total of the season and was his third top-20 finish in 2010-11. Jonathan Khan tied for 25th place at one-over 214, while Erik Oja tied for 32nd place at two-over 215. Stefan Cox tied for 48th place at six-over 219, to round out the UA participants. The 54-hole 2011 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Arizona Regional was contested at Omni Tucson National Golf Resort, a par-71, 7,199-yard layout.
Last Appearance at the NCAA Championships (2009): Arizona's 2008-09 men's golf season came to a close with a 30th-place finish at the 2009 NCAA Men's Golf Championships in Toledo, Ohio. Arizona posted its low round of the tournament Friday, a 13-over 297, to finish the event with a three-round total of 909 (+57). The Cats were one of six teams to finish the stroke play portion of the event Friday, as darkness pushed the teams off the course late Thursday.
Sophomore Tarquin MacManus finished in a tie for 96th place at 13-over 226, one stroke ahead of teammate Rich Saferian, who tied for 104th place at 14-over 226. Senior Tyler Neal tied for 143rd place at 21-over 234, while freshman Philip Bagdade tied for 151st place at 23-over-par 236 tally.
2003 NCAA Championships at Karsten Creek: Arizona shot a final-round 311 to finish in 17th place at the 2003 NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla. Arizona posted a 23-over-par 311 final round and finished the 72-hole event with a 1,229 (+77) total. The Cats' final-round tally was its worst round of the 2002-03 season and led to the team's worst finish at the NCAA Championships since 1999. It marked just the second time this season that Arizona had failed to finish in the top 10. Individually, Ricky Barnes became the first golfer in Arizona history to post four consecutive top-20 finishes at the NCAA Championships. The senior from Stockton, Calif., shot a one-over-par 73 Friday and finished tied for sixth place at 292 (+4). Barnes, the only Wildcat to break par in the event, collected three birdies and 11 pars over the final round.
Arizona Individuals Team Finish
T6. Ricky Barnes 75-74-70-73=292 (+4) 1. Clemson, 1,191
T35. Chris Nallen 75-78-75-75=303 (+15) 2. Oklahoma State, 1,193
T71. Brian Woolf 81-75-78-81=315 (+27) 3. UCLA, 1,197
T80. Andrew Medley 76-81-80-83=320 (+32) 4. Wake Forest, 1,198
Reid Hatley WD-88-83-82 (+37) Florida, 1,198
17. ARIZONA, 1,229
NCAA Championship History: By securing a berth in the 2011 NCAA Men's Golf Championships, Arizona earned the 27th appearance in the event and its 23rd in the last 25 seasons. The Wildcats made its first NCAA Championship appearance in 1941 and since then have collected one national championship (1992) and 11 additional top-10 finishes. Of those top-10 efforts, four have been third-place finishes. Interestingly, six Wildcats have won the individual crown at the NCAA regional, but no UA individual has ever won the NCAA title.
The Guy Just Gets it Done: Since the NCAA regional format was adopted in 1989, Arizona has advanced to the NCAA Championships under head coach Rick LaRose every time the team has qualified for the postseason and he has been present - a spotless 21 for 21 - in those 23 seasons. The only times UA has failed to advance was in 2008 when the Cats did not qualify for the postseason and in 2010 when LaRose was heading the UA women's team at the NCAA Championships.
Pay Attention to Seeds: Let's be honest: based on the regional seedings 11th-seeded Arizona wasn't supposed to advance to this week's NCAA Championships. But the above note and the fact that the Cats were playing at home certainly bolstered the Wildcat case. Additionally, Arizona is one of two 11 seeds to advance to this year's championship meet (Colorado State). Since the six-regional format was adopted in 2009, a total of four 11 seeds have advanced to the Championships (Iowa, 2009; Penn State, 2010). The highest seed to reach the NCAA Championships since 2009 was San Diego, who accomplished the feat as a 12 seed in 2009.
No Easy Task: Winning a national championship is no easy feat, but advancing to the Championships itself might be the most challenging aspect of the postseason. Arizona (No. 60) is one of seven teams currently ranked outside of the top 30 of the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index to advance to the 2011 NCAA Championships. Of those seven who failed to qualify, five were ranked No. 22 or better.
Among the Elite: According to NCAA championship records, Arizona is one of only six programs in NCAA history to register 20 or more consecutive appearances in the Division I Men's Golf Championships since 1939. The Cats (1987-2007) join Oklahoma State (1947-present), Houston (1952-87), Clemson (1982-2004), Stanford (1950-71) and North Texas (1947-67) as the only programs to accomplish the feat. Of the six schools listed, Only Oklahoma State's streak is active.
Conference Roll Call: Of the 30 teams that make up the field of this year's championship, few league's are better represented than the Pacific-10. In its waning moments before expanding to 12, no fewer than five teams from the "Conference of Champions" advanced to Stillwater for this week's event - Arizona, Arizona State, California, UCLA and USC -that's 17 percent of the field. Here is the breakdown of the top five producers by conference: 1.) Southeastern, 6; 2.) Pac-10 and Big Ten, 5 each; 3.) Big 12, 4; 4.) Atlantic Coast, 2.
When it Mattered Most: There is nothing quite like saving your best effort of the season for the NCAA regionals, and that's what the Wildcats accomplished May 19-21. Arizona carded its low tournament total of the season, an eight-under 844, to tie for fourth place. Furthermore, it marked the first time this season that the Wildcats were under par in all three rounds of a tournament.
All-Pac-10: A pair of University of Arizona men's golfers received all-Pac-10 postseason honors, the league announced May 9. Tarquin MacManus was a second-team selection, marking the third time in four years that he has been a second-team all-conference pick, and Erik Oja received honorable mention kudos. It marks the 96th and 97th time that Arizona golfers have earned all-Pac-10 honors since joining the conference in 1978-79, and the 30th time the Cats have had at least two all-conference honorees in a single season in that span.
Low Numbers are Good in This Game: The 2011 spring season has been one of serious improvement for the Wildcats, as the squad has collected six top-five finishes in nine starts, including a win Feb. 8 at the Anteater Invitational, and seen its scoring average drop considerably. Arizona's countable stroke average this spring is 290.72 (adjusted for six-man events), a figure that is 8.64 strokes lower than the fall figure. Individually, that improvement boils down to 2.16 strokes per man. As head coach Rick LaRose said following the NCAA Regional, "I couldn't be more proud of this team. We played our hearts out." How far has the club come this spring? Arizona is 78-38 this spring in head-to-head competition after finishing the fall with a 10-33 mark.
Finishing on Top: Arizona is no stranger to the top of the leader board, both as a team and individually. The Wildcats claimed the Anteater Invitational, Feb. 8, by four strokes with an 872 (+8) total. It was the 70th win in program history and the first since March of last year. Individually, two Wildcats claimed medalist honors this season, the 67th and 68th wins in program history. Jonathan Khan won the National Invitational Tournament, March 22, with a six-under par 210 total, while Tarquin MacManus won the Wyoming Cowboy Classic with an eight-under 202 tally.
For Openers: The round-by-round results show that the Wildcats are a first-round club. Through its 14 stroke play events, the Wildcats' lowest scoring round is the first with an adjusted average of 291.52. The Cats average 293.44 strokes in round two and post a third round average of 295.48. Arizona's scoring average is nearly a stroke per man lower (0.99) in round one than in round three. Not surprisingly, UA's low round of any tournament was registered in the first round seven times, while it's high round appeared in the third eight times.
Red Numbers: Bolstered by its eight-under tally at the NCAA Arizona Regional, the Wildcats finished four tournaments under par in 2010-11. True to form this season, three of those four sub-par efforts have come since April. Here is the complete list: three-under 861 at the Topy Cup in September, three-under 281 in a dual match win over Brown on April 2, one-under 839 at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic in April and eight-under 844 at the NCAA Arizona Regional in May. All told, the Cats registered eight under-par rounds as a team in 14 stroke play events with the lowest single round, 283 (-5), occurring Sept. 10 at the Topy Cup in the second round of the season.
Follow Him: Tarquin MacManus, a senior from Cairns, Queensland, Australia, leads the Wildcats with a 72.61 scoring average and has been UA's top finisher in six of 14 appearances. He has five top-10 finishes to his credit and 14 of his 41 rounds played have been at par or better, including eight rounds in the 60s with a low of 65. Earlier this season, MacManus posted an 11-under 205 to finish third at the Topy Cup and an eight-under 202 to win the Wyoming Cowboy Classic. He was a second team all-Pac-10 selection in 2008 and 2009 previously, and has earned postseason accolades - all-conference, all-region or All-American -- in each of his four seasons with the program.
He's Got Quite a Reputation Overseas: In addition to leading the Wildcats in just about every statistical category during the 2010-11 campaign, senior Tarquin MacManus has made a bit of a name for himself in amateur golf circles worldwide. The Cairns, Queensland, Australia, native won the Australian Master of the Amateurs tournament, Jan. 12, at Royal Melbourne's West Course. MacManus used six birdies on the final 10 holes to post a six-under 65 and a record 12-under-par tally to win by three shots. Additionally, the Aussie collected a runner-up finish at the Asian Amateur Championship, Oct. 10, at Kasumigaseki Country Club's West Course outside Tokyo. His 10-under total secured MacManus a berth in the International Final Qualifying for the 2011 British Open Championship at Royal St. George's Golf Club.
Where He Stands: Tarquin MacManus' collegiate career will come to a close this week in Stillwater, and not without leaving his mark in the UA record books. He will finish his career with a minimum of 162 competitive rounds played, which would rank him 11th all-time in Arizona history. He enters play this week with a 72.35 scoring average, a figure that ranks fourth in UA history, trailing only Chris Nallen (71.19/2000-04), Ricky Barnes (71.48/1999-2003) and Henry Liaw (71.89/2003-06). Shortly after posting birdies on 15, 16, and 17 to help the Cats qualify for the Championships, head coach Rick LaRose said of MacManus, "Tarquin ranks up there with Jim Furyk as one of the all-time toughest golfers in Wildcat history."
Strong to the Finish: Freshman Erik Oja has certainly turned it up a notch of late, as he has tallied a 70.91 scoring average over his last 11 rounds played (4 events). The native of Sandviken, Sweden, collected two top-20 finishes in that span, including his best finish of the season at the Pac-10 Championships, April 29-May 1, with a tie for ninth place. Oja tallied rounds of 70, 72, 73 and 68 to finish at three-over-par 283 and earn the first top-10 finish of his collegiate career. Currently, his 73.76 scoring average is the 15th best for a freshman in school history.
Count On It: When looking at the Wildcat lineup for this week's NCAA Championships, the top two slots are set, as seniors Tarquin MacManus and Jonathan Khan are the only two players to see action in all 14 varsity events this season. One other player, freshman Erik Oja, played in 13 of 14 tournaments to date, missing only the Anteater Invitational, Feb. 7-8. Between the three, they've amassed 16 top-20 finishes, including nine in the top 10.
We Need Him to Be Good: If Arizona is going to be competitive in this NCAA Championship event, the Wildcats are going to need the contributions of Jonathan Khan. The senior from Tucson, Ariz., has a 71.61 scoring average in the six events where Arizona has earned top-five finishes and a 75.18 scoring average in the eight others. Not surprisingly, all three of his top-10 finishes have come when the team also finishes in the top-five places. Overall, he ranks second on the team with a 73.58 scoring average.
Contributing When He Can: Stefan Cox has been a part of the UA varsity lineup for five of his 11 appearances this season, but he's been a solidifying presence. In those five events - the Anteater Invitational, John A. Burns Intercollegiate, Wyoming Cowboy Classic, Pac-10 Championships and NCAA Arizona Regional - have been three of Arizona's best events, featuring a team win, runner-up finish and a tie for fourth place. While his scoring average in those five events is modest is a modest 74.06, he has done what every good role player does: register at least one low countable round in each tournament. When the senior from Essex, England, contributes a countable round in those five events, his scoring average is 71.20.
Sophomore Sensation: It's not a stretch to say that Arizona's qualifying run through the regionals was boosted tremendously by sophomore Juan Pablo Hernandez, who tied for 14th place with a two-under 211 total. It marked the first time this season that the Mexico City, Mexico, native has finished under par in a tournament. His rounds of 71, 69 and 71 spurred him to a career-low tournament total in a 54-hole event, while the second-round 69 equaled the low round of his career.
In Championship Action: Frankly, the Wildcats don't bring a heap of NCAA Championship experience into this event, as only two of the five men scheduled to compete have previous championship experience. Seniors Tarquin MacManus and Jonathan Khan each appeared in the 2009 NCAA Championships at The Inverness Club. MacManus, the Cat with the most NCAA postseason experience, has a 71.87 scoring average to go with three top-five finishes. Included in that was individual medalist honors at the 2009 Southeast Regional in Sorrento, Fla., where he carded a 15-under 198 total. Their round-by-round activities are listed below.
Arizona Golfers in the NCAA Postseason
Year Regional/NCAA Rnds Score Place Location
Tarquin MacManus, Senior (71.87)
2008 West Regional 3 80-75-74=229 (+13) T79 Bremerton, Wash.
2009 Southeast Regional 3 63-66-69=198 (-15) 1 Sorrento, Fla.
2009 NCAA Championships 3 77-75-74=226 (+13) T96 Toledo, Ohio
2010 Southwest Regional 3 75-71-70=216 (E) T5 Santee, Calif.
2011 Arizona Regional 3 67-71-71=209 (-4) T7 Tucson, Ariz.
Jonathan Khan, Senior (74.17)
2009 Southeast Regional 3 71-72-74=217 (+4) T49 Sorrento, Fla.
2009 NCAA Championships 3 79-74-72=225 (+12) T89 Toledo, Ohio
2010 Southwest Regional 3 78-76-80=234 (+18) T63 Santee, Calif.
2011 Arizona Regional 3 71-68-75=214 (+1) T25 Tucson, Ariz.
Erik Oja, Freshman (71.67)
2011 Arizona Regional 3 72-73-70=215 (+2) T32 Tucson, Ariz.
Stefan Cox, Senior (73.00)
2011 Arizona Regional 3 76-72-71=219 (+6) T48 Tucson, Ariz.
Juan Pablo Hernandez, Sophomore (70.33)
2011 Arizona Regional 3 71-69-71=211 (-2) T14 Tucson, Ariz.
