April 27, 2008
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Louisiana Tech will join eight other teams in the 2008 Western Athletic Conference Men's Golf Championship, starting Monday at the Cinnabar Hills Golf Club.
The three-day event will be hosted by San Jose State and an automatic berth in one of three NCAA Regional Championships May 8-10 is at stake. The Bulldogs join a field consisting of defending champion Nevada, Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico State, Utah State and the host Spartans.
Each school will field a five-man team to play the combined Mountain and Lake nine-hole courses at Cinnabar Hills for 18 holes daily beginning at 9:30 a.m. CST. A team's top four scores will count in the team-scoring format and all 45 players are eligible for the individual championship.
Head coach Jean Hall's squad will consist of senior Chad Bailey, juniors Amrith de Soysa, Ryan Robertson and Corey Bartlett and sophomore Matthew Harvey.
"I expect us to be competitive and be in the race to win," Hall said Sunday morning prior to his team's practice round. "I feel like we have a mature team and we have played a great schedule. We have competed against some of these teams this year and we know we can compete. We have to play good, solid golf."
Hall said the WAC is a very competitive golf league featuring some of the nation's top teams and individuals.
Boise State, Fresno State and New Mexico State have tournament triumphs this season. Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, San Jose State and Utah State have at least one top-five team finish in 2007-08.
Grant Doverspike, a Fresno State sophomore from Bakersfield, Calif., is the defending WAC Championship medalist and one of five conference players with a tournament victory this season, including Tech's Harvey and de Soysa.
"The WAC has some very, very good golfers, including one of the top golfers in the country in Boise State's Troy Merritt," Hall said. "From the top to bottom, the WAC is a very competitive conference. There are probably five teams that could realistically win it and not surprise anyone."
Merritt earned his fourth consecutive victory at the PING Cougar Classic and is currently ranked by both Golfstat (seventh) and Golfweek (21st). He leads the country in individual victories (6) and scoring average (69.2).
Hall has seen his program finish as high as fifth in 2005, while finishing in seventh place last year.
"We have to play good golf without making the doubles and triples," Hall said. "We have to stay away from three-putting and big numbers. We've proven that if we play well we can play with anybody."
Live scoring will be available for the event at sjsuspartans.com, wacsports.com and golfstat.com.
