It's off to Chattanooga and a shot at the national championship for the Kent State men's team.
Kent State golf coach Herb Page is looking for a third top-10 finish for the Golden Flashes in next week's NCAA national tournament in Tennessee.
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• Hey, T.R.! | More local golfCLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's off to Chattanooga and a shot at the national championship for the Kent State men's team.
The Golden Flashes will make the school's 14th appearance in the NCAA national tournament next week, thanks to a tie for first place with Texas in the East regional last week at The Golf Course at Yale, in New Haven, Conn.
With freshman Kevin Miller and junior John Hahn each finishing in the top 10, the Golden Flashes posted a 5-under 835 team total. UCLA was third at 836, followed by Penn State (837) and Virginia (843).
The co-championship means the Flashes will be one of 30 teams to play at least 54 holes in what could be a grueling NCAA national tournament at The Honors Course, in Chattanooga, Tenn., starting Tuesday.
The top eight teams after the first three rounds will advance to the match-play portion of the event, where the first-place team will play the eighth-place team (and so on) in a single-elimination format.
Miller, from Dover, Ohio, tied for fourth in the regional with a 4-under 206 and Hahn, from Hudson, tied for eighth at 208. Canadians Brett Cairns (210) and Mackenzie Hughes (211) rounded out the scoring.
Miller chipped in for birdie from about four feet off the green on the final hole to get the Flashes into the tie.
Hudson freshman Isaac Charette shot 239, but his score was not included in the play-five, count-four format. The regional championship was the third for the Flashes under veteran coach Herb Page. They also won in 1993 and 2001. KSU has two top 10 finishes in the NCAA, finishing ninth in 2000 (with Ben Curtis and John Mills) and sixth in 2008 (with Hahn and Cairns).
Moving on: At least three players with local ties have advanced out of local qualifying to the sectional qualifier for the U.S. Open, to be played next month at Pebble Beach in Southern California.
Former Walsh Jesuit and Ohio State star Ryan Armour was the medalist with a round of 65 in a local qualifier in Wallace, N.C., last month. He was followed by Kent State's Hahn, who qualified at Riviera Golf Club in Dublin last week. On the same day, Bainbridge resident Zack Bates, a freshman at Cincinnati, qualified at Maketewah Country Club in Cincinnati by shooting 72. Bates, who played at Kenston, birdied the first hole in an eight-man playoff to earn one of the final three available spots.
Chipping in: The PGA always has been known for its contributions to charity, and the local Northern Ohio chapter is continuing that tradition with a program called A Golf Lesson For Life. The program, devised by Canterbury pro Michael Kernicki, has raised about $5,000 to aid fellow members and their families in Tennessee victimized by the recent floods. Northern Ohio members were asked to donate their fees from one golf lesson to the cause.
Missed and made: Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz was one of four professional athletes who failed to reach one of the 12 U.S. Open sectional qualifiers around the country. Smoltz, now a broadcaster, shot 76 at Marietta (Ga.) Country Club and missed the cut by seven shots.
The others were former Oakland and St. Louis pitcher Mark Mulder (missed by six), Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell (missed by 14 in Orlando) and Jacksonville place-kicker Josh Scobee (missed by 11 in Jacksonville).
Some notables who made it include Dallas quarterback Tony Romo (shot 69 in Dallas), former Tour player turned broadcaster Bobby Clampett and former Tour wunderkind Ty Tyron, who shot 67 and was the medalist at Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brookville, Fla.