Monday Marks Regional Play Start for Golf Dawgs

By Austin Coats, Student Assistant/Communications

SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. – On Monday, Mississippi State men's golf coach Dusty Smith will lead his team to its second regional under his reign. Smith is only the second coach in program history to take the Golf Dawgs to regional play in his first two seasons.

The 10-seed in the NCAA Louisville Regional, Smith's team will tee off Monday at 7:55 a.m. CT from hole No. 10 on the par-72, 7,217-yard University of Louisville Golf Club course. The field will play three rounds, one each day from Monday through Wednesday. Live results will be available through Golfstat.com.

In the fall, State played its way to a fifth-place finish at the U of L Golf Club, led by junior Peng Pichaikool's first of two runner-up finishes this season. The 2-under 850 remains the team's best 54-hole score of the season.

Of the 13 teams competing, the top five will advance to NCAA Championship play. The field at the Louisville Regional is led by No. 1 overall seed Oklahoma State and nine total Golfweek Top 50 teams.

"The biggest challenge is not getting ahead of ourselves," Smith said. "We have experience on that golf course. We played it earlier in the fall. We were pretty successful out there. We finished fifth in a pretty big field out there, beat some quality teams.

"When you get to postseason, everything starts over. It starts from scratch. Understanding that you have 13 teams there, the top five teams advance, but you can't really focus on that. You have to focus on preparing well. You have to focus on having a great practice round. Then, you have to take one shot at a time. If we have that mentality and we truly do stay where our feet are, then we'll be successful."

To conclude the 2017-18 season, State finished eighth in the Bryan Regional at Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas. Juniors Peng Pichaikool and Garrett Johnson are the only two student-athletes returning to the lineup from a year ago, playing in the first two spots on Smith's card.

Freshman phenom Ford Clegg takes the three-hole, followed by senior Austin Rose and redshirt freshman Ben Nelson.

Pichaikool has the most NCAA experience on the team, playing in his third regional. Before playing with the team in 2018, he earned an individual bid at the end of the 2016-17 season as a freshman. Pichaikool leads the team with a 71.27 season stroke average.

Johnson was MSU's top finisher at the 2018 regional, taking a share of 25th. Since then, Johnson earned medalist honors at the Desert Mountain intercollegiate this March, one of three top-15 finishes.

Clegg has burst on the scene as a freshman, carding six top-15 finishes, the second-best total of any SEC freshman. In a seven-tournament span from October to April this season, Clegg's worst finish was a tied-for 19th place. The two-time SEC Freshman Golfer of the Week joins Johnson as one of two Bulldogs who have played all 11 events leading up to the regional in 2018-19.

In the four spot, Austin Rose will look to carry over some recent success. In mid-April, Rose tied for 20th to help State to a top-5 finish at the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship, before tying as MSU's best finisher at the SEC Tournament.

"[Late in the year] I've hit the ball pretty well and I've had consistent misses, but, most importantly, I've put it in the fairway and I know where I can go from there," Rose said.

Ben Nelson will make just his second start of the year but has played in five tournaments altogether this season. In April, Nelson picked up a career-best share of 13th at the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship playing as an individual.

Senior Ross Bell traveled with the team as an alternate.

For more information on the Bulldogs, follow the program on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching @HailStateMG.

MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith:

"The biggest challenge is not getting ahead of ourselves. We have experience on that golf course. We played it earlier in the fall. We were pretty successful out there. We finished fifth in a pretty big field out there, beat some quality teams.

"When you get to postseason, everything starts over. It starts from scratch. Understanding that you have 13 teams there, the top five teams advance, but you can't really focus on that. You have to focus on preparing well. You have to focus on having a great practice round. Then, you have to take one shot at a time. If we have that mentality and we truly do stay where our feet are, then we'll be successful."

"We had a great week of preparation and we are looking forward to this next opportunity. This is a new season for us. We need to take what we learned from all of our experiences this year as a team and continue to build upon them. We talked a lot this week about everyone knowing their role and doing their job. We need to focus on us and what we can control. It's important we have focus on the right things and that we keep golf simple this week."

NCAA Louisville Regional Field (Golfweek Ranking)
1. Oklahoma State (1)
2. Auburn (15)
3. North Florida (17)
4. Louisville (19)
5. Baylor (22)
6. Arkansas State (36)
7. Iowa State (38)
8. West Virginia (50)
9. Arizona (49)
10. Mississippi State (60)
11. New Mexico (57)
12. Jacksonville State (116)
13. Southern Illinois (112)

Monday Marks Regional Play Start for Golf Dawgs

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ross Bell

Ford Clegg

Garrett Johnson

Ben Nelson

Peng Pichaikool

Austin Rose

Mississippi State University Athletics

Monday Marks Regional Play Start for Golf Dawgs

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ross Bell

Ford Clegg

Garrett Johnson

Ben Nelson

Peng Pichaikool

Austin Rose

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