UCI men’s golf team heads to NCAA Championships

The UC Irvine men’s golf team has been to the NCAA Championships twice before, but the Anteaters will try for an unprecedented accomplishment in the tournament that starts today on The Kampen Course at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West, Lafayette, Ind.

UCI will attempt to make the final cut of 15 teams which is determined after the third round, a feat that previous Anteater teams did not complete in 1992 and 2001.

The 72-hole tournament will have 18 holes of competition each day, with final day being Saturday.

Senior Kenny Kim, along with juniors Sean Shahi and Tim Cha, as well as sophomore John Chin and freshman Max Greil helped UCI finish third in the NCAA East Regional May 17 to give Anteaters the berth into the NCAA Championships, where they will be the No. 18th seed.

Shahi led the Anteaters at the East Regional with a fourth-place finish of nine-under-par 204 (70-65-69) on the par-71 course.

Coach Paul Smolinski’s Anteaters advanced to regional play by virtue of winning the program’s second straight Big West Conference title April 22.

USC is the top-seeded team in the NCAA Championships, followed by No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Wake Forest.

UCI will play the first two rounds with No. 16-seeded Oregon and No. 17 Augusta State.

— From staff reports