LA Tech Golf Notebook: NCAA Lubbock Regional

LUBBOCK, Texas - Last year Victor Lange gained experience becoming the first Bulldog to receive a bid to the NCAA Regionals. This year the Louisiana Tech junior is aiming higher and is using a little home cooking on the road to help him as he tees off at the NCAA Lubbock Regional beginning Thursday.

Lange will be the beneficiary of the familiarity that Louisiana Tech head coach Jeff Jenkins has of The Rawls Course in Lubbock - host of one of six NCAA Regional sites and the course where Lange will be vying for a spot to the NCAA Championships held later this month in Bradenton, Florida.

Jenkins spent the last four years patrolling the par-71, 7,349-yard Rawls Course as an assistant coach at Texas Tech before he was named the Louisiana Tech head coach last summer.

In his first year he has guided Lange to what could arguably be the best season in school history that started with a team victory at the Memphis Intercollegiate in September, including Lange carding a school and state collegiate tying record with a single round of 62 at the LA Tech-hosted Jim Rivers Intercollegiate and continues with Lange's back-to-back NCAA Regional bids.

Jenkins spent Wednesday walking the course with Lange as players had the option in playing the course in groups of five for the practice round.

Lange enters as the No. 3 seed among 10 individuals and is ranked 80th in the nation entering the event. He is set to tee off at 10:23 a.m. CT Thursday in a threesome with Kentucky's Tyler McDaniel and Charleston Southern's Austin James.

Recently named the Conference USA Golfer of the Year, Lange enters the NCAA Regionals with a 71.42 stroke average this season with three runner-up finishes to his credit. He is the highest-ranked individual from Conference USA in the nation rankings at No. 80 with UAB's Martin Rohwer following at No. 103.

Lange has some familiarity with the Lubbock Regional field having faced two teams (Auburn and Southeastern Louisiana) as well as three individuals earlier this season. He shared the course with UTEP's Martin Simonsen during Wednesday's practice round with Lange and Simonsen representing C-USA as two of the 10 individuals in the Lubbock Regional field.

The Lubbock Regional features 13 teams and 10 individuals with the top five teams and the top individual not on one of those teams advancing to the NCAA Championships in Bradenton, Florida on May 22-27.

Live scoring for the NCAA Lubbock Regional can be found at LATechSports.com and GolfStat.com.

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