Detroit Men's Golfers Come Home 25th At NCAA West Regional

May 21, 2007

The University of Detroit Mercy men's golfers closed out the NCAA West Regional at Arizona State on Saturday with their best 18-hole score of the three-day tournament, securing 25th place and nearly catching 50th-ranked San Diego State University for 24th in the process.


Detroit ended the tournament with a five-over-par round of 293 on the 7,057-yard Karsten Golf Course, and missed tying SDSU by just three shots. The Titans also weathered an early rally by Patriot League champion Bucknell University to maintain the same position in which they entered the final round. It marked UDM's fourth berth in the NCAA Regionals in seven years.


Senior Kyler Murphy led the Titans on Saturday with a one-under round of 71 as he closed out his UDM career. Junior Mark Sommerfeld - the two-time Horizon League Player of the Year - paced the Horizon League champs overall with a 73-71-72-219 score card.


The University of South Carolina won the West Regional, and the Top 10 squads in the 27-team field moved on to the NCAA Finals in Williamsburg, Va.


"I'm proud of the way our team played all season, and I hope all of UDM feels the same way," Titans coach Mark Engel said. "We had a goal all year of winning another Horizon League Championship (Detroit's fifth in nine years) to get back to the Regionals and the guys worked hard to make it happen.


"The West Region had a ridiculous amount of good teams in the field. Seven teams ranked in the Top 50 nationally didn't even finish in the Top 10 here. For us to compete against them, and to be competitive with the way we played, says a lot about our golf team. Four of the five guys who played here will be back next year, and I know all of them are already looking forward to defending our conference championship and making another trip like this one to Arizona State. All in all it's been a good year for the Titans."