May 9, 2005

WACO, Texas - The Baylor men's golf team earned its eighth straight invitation to the NCAA Regional Championships and will participate in the Central Regional hosted by Notre Dame May 19-21 at Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Ind.

"Looking at the field, there are some very good teams in there, but I believe this is a regional we can play pretty well in and compete," head coach Greg Priest said. "I also think the golf course sets up pretty well for us, it's a par 70 and it's about 6,800 yards. It's not a long course, so the advantage goes to the teams that can manage their game in certain situations. You don't have to be a long hitter, but we certainly have those as well as guys who manage their game pretty well."

The Bears are one of nine Big 12 schools selected to the tournament, trailing only the Southeastern Conference, who has 10 representatives. The Pac-10 and Atlantic Coast Conference have seven each, while the Big 10 and Mountain West have five apiece.

"It just shows you how deep the Big 12 is and it's a great conference to play in," Priest said. "We didn't show it at conference, we were a few shots away from scoring really well, but I believe we can compete with just about anyone."

The Bears enter the regional as the 19th-seeded team and will face tough competition with Big 12 champion and No. 1 seed Oklahoma State, Conference USA champion TCU, SEC champion Kentucky, Big 10 champion Michigan State and Western Athletic Conference champion SMU in the regional. Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas, Missouri and Kansas State are also in the Central Regional field.

The SEC will host the East Regional in St. Simon's Island, Ga., while Stanford will host the West Regional in Palo Alto, Calif. The top 10 teams and two individuals on teams not in the top 10 of each of the three 27-team regionals will advance to the NCAA Championships June 1-4 at Caves Valley Golf Club in Baltimore, Md.