WACO, Texas -- Baylor men's golf is headed to the NCAA Kohler (Wis.) Regional for its 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Bears are the No. 5 seed in the 13-team field, and the top five teams will advance to the NCAA Championship.

The three-day, 54-hole tournament runs Monday through Wednesday in Kohler, Wis. Marquette University is hosting the regional at the Blackwolf Run Meadow Valleys course. The par-72, 7,123-yard course opened in 1988 and was named that year's "Best New Public Course" by Golf Digest.

Eight teams in the 13-team regional are ranked among the top 50 teams nationally according to the latest GolfStat rankings. The No. 29 Bears are joined by No. 2 Illinois, No. 7 Florida, No. 15 Florida State, No. 21 Arkansas, No. 31 Penn State, No. 35 Memphis and No. 48 Kent State.

Those eight top-50 ranked teams will be joined by UCLA, East Tennessee State, Campbell, Idaho and South Dakota State.

Baylor's lineup features Andreas Gjesteby, Freddy Andersen, Braden Bailey, Matthew Perrine and Hunter Shattuck. The Bears are paired with players from Arkansas and Penn State for Monday's first round and will begin from the 10th hole at 8:20 a.m. CT. Shattuck will be up first at 8:20 a.m., and he'll be followed in 10-minute intervals by Perrine, Bailey, Andersen and Gjesteby, respectively.

The top five teams and low individual on a non-advancing team will move on to the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, which will be played May 27-June 1 at the Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.

For live scoring information throughout the tournament, visit www.golfstat.com. Follow @BaylorMGolf on twitter for updates throughout the season.

NCAA Kohler Regional Seeds
1. Illinois
2. Florida State
3. Florida
4. Arkansas
5. Baylor
6. Penn State
7. Memphis
8. Kent State
9. UCLA
10. East Tennessee State
11. Campbell
12. Idaho
13. South Dakota State

Mike McGraw says it's a "crime" that Baylor senior Andreas Gjesteby has never advanced to the NCAA Championships. This week, hopefully, that changes.

Gjesteby, fellow senior Frederik Andersen and the rest of the men's golf team are seeded fifth for the NCAA Kohler Region that begins Monday at The Meadow Valleys Course at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisc.

"I just remember the disappointment last year, and that's something I do not want to feel again," Gjesteby said of the Bears' sixth-place finish at last year's regional tournament in Bremerton, Wash., one spot out of advancing. "It would mean a lot going to nationals, because I know our team is good enough to compete and go to match play and do some real damage up there, for sure. We are a really good team, and I think just getting there is going to be big for us."

Last year, Baylor was in fifth place going into the final day of the regional and moved up to fourth at one point in the last round. But they struggled down the stretch and finished eight shots behind Washington and TCU, failing to advance for the fifth straight year.

"I just remember we were in contention and we were in the fifth spot until the last few holes," said Anderson, who had matching rounds of 2-under-par 70 in the last two rounds and tied for 24th at even-par 216. "And then I hit in the water, Filippo (Zucchetti) hit in the water, and it just unraveled on us. This year, I think we're better prepared. The guys kind of know how to handle it. And honestly, I think we have a better team right now than we had at this point last year."

As one of just two returners, along with Gjesteby, Anderson couldn't have said that back in the fall when the Bears had just one top-five finish in three tournaments and were barely in the top 50.

Freshman Braden Bailey and transfers Matthew Perrine and Hunter Shattuck blossomed in the spring, helping Baylor win a pair of tournaments and post five other top-five finishes in moving up to No. 28.

"I didn't think we were going to have as good of a team this year as we turned out to have," Andersen said. "But some of the new guys have come in and stepped up and proven to be great players. . . . The thing about this team is we always have four good scores every day, we're never going to just completely tank it. If we can just get four or even five guys to play solid golf, we'll definitely make it through."

That's the balance of this team. The five players' scoring averages are less than half a stroke, led by Anderson (72.81) and Bailey (72.84). At the Big 12 Championship two weeks ago, Perrine, Bailey and Shattuck posted top-25 finishes, while the two seniors struggled all week and tied for 33rd at 15-over 303 as the Bears finished fifth.

"It's been fun to see that you don't have to rely on just the seniors to play well," said Gjesteby, who has a 73.06-stroke average with six top-25 finishes. "Knowing that you have those guys really helps me play more relaxed and not have to worry like, `Oh, you have to go out there.'''

In a 13-team field led by fourth-ranked Illinois, No. 10 Florida State, 16th-ranked Florida and No. 21 Arkansas, McGraw said the Bears "don't have to do anything special" to finish among the top five teams and advance to the NCAA Championships for just the sixth time in program history.

"We played kind of poorly in the fall, which got our ranking way down, but we've steadily made progress," the second-year coach said. "And I think these guys kind of feel like last year was a little bit of unfinished business. Now, only two of them - Andreas and Freddy - were on the team last year. But I think kind of feel like, this is crazy, let's go take care of business, do what we're supposed to do and move on."

Although they weren't able to actually walk the stage for this weekend's graduation ceremonies, Andersen and Gjesteby were a part of the 77 Baylor student-athletes that earned their bachelor's or master's degrees. Andersen is a psychology major from Kolding, Denmark, while Gjesteby is a Drammen, Norway native who got his degree in finance.

"Honestly, when I started junior college, I thought I would give it one year and just kind of see where it takes me," said Andersen, an NJCAA All-American who spent his first two years at Western Texas College in Snyder. "And now, actually being here four years later, it's amazing just how fast it's gone and the fact that I'm graduating with a bachelor's degree. No matter what, I'll always have that degree."

Gjesteby said it will be sad to leave the team behind after this season, "but it's time for me to move on."

Getting the degree "was really important to me," he said. "Knowing that I was going to spend four years here, I didn't want to just disregard school. So, I decided to go into finance and spend a lot of energy just finishing that degree. It was tough at times, but it was really worth it in the end. I'm proud of myself for actually sticking with it and finishing that up."

Live scoring for the Kohler Region is available at www.golfstat.com.