Kansas State University
Big 12 Championship
K-State Heads to Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship with Motivation
Apr 25, 2019 | Men's Golf
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Riding a wave of momentum and entering the event with postseason aspirations, the Kansas State men's golf team takes on its conference peers during the 2019 Big 12 Men's Golf Championship, Friday through Sunday, at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
The three-day, 72-hole tournament consists of 36 holes on Friday, followed by 18 on Saturday and the final 18 on Sunday. K-State will tee off Friday at 8:30 a.m. (CT) on hole No. 1 and is paired with West Virginia. Pairings for Day 2 will be based on the 36-hole team totals from Day 1, beginning with the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams. Day 3 will be based on the 54-hole team totals with the leaders teeing off last.
The Big 12 is arguably the best conference in the nation in men's college golf. Although the Wildcats are the No. 10 seed for the event, K-State enters play ranked 63rd in the nation in the latest Golfstat rankings and is on the cusp of its first NCAA Regional berth since 2009. The Big 12 has eight teams ranked in the top 37 nationally, including four in the top 10 in Oklahoma State (No. 1), Texas (No. 6), Oklahoma (No. 7) and Texas Tech (No. 10).
The Wildcats are coming off a fourth-place finish at the Hawkeye Invitational last week where they shot a 10-under par 842, earning K-State its fourth-consecutive tournament finishing in the top four. At last year's Big 12 Golf Championship, then-junior Jeremy Gandon claimed the Big 12 Individual Co-Championship after carding a 3-over par 283.
"Big 12 week is always exciting," head coach Grant Robbins said. "It's something you work toward all year, and it's a great opportunity to compete in the best college golf conference in the country. The guys are confident coming in, and it's a golf course that fits our team pretty well. Our goal is to be patient and disciplined in our decision making and stay committed to our process shot by shot. If we do that, then I think we will be pretty happy with where we are at come Sunday."
Gandon will be in the No. 1 slot for the Wildcats, followed by senior Roland Massimino. Massimino is coming off his best finish of the season, a tie for seventh at the Hawkeye Invitational. Juniors Jacob Eklund and Ben Fernandez follow Massimino, and freshman Will Hopkins returns to lineup after competing as an individual last week. Hopkins shot the best round of his young career at 4-under par 209, picking up his first top-20 finish of the season.
Live scoring of the 2019 Big 12 Men's Golf Championship can be followed at www.golfstat.com.
Players Mentioned
