First Goal Accomplished, but Time to Take the Next Step

By: D. Scott Fritchen

In what has almost become a regular April engagement, the Kansas State men's golf team, coaches, athletic department staff and loyal supporters gathered at the Shamrock Zone at Bramlage Coliseum. They watched GOLF Channel on large TV screens. They waited. And they waited some more.

And then, when the last region was announced, the Wildcats' wait was over.

Ticket punched.

"You can never take it for granted," K-State head coach Grant Robbins said.

For the third time in the last four seasons, K-State has earned a postseason bid, the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Selection Committee revealed during the live televised selection special on Wednesday.

K-State was selected as the No. 10 seed in the 2025 NCAA Bremerton Regional and will compete at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Washington, on May 12-14, against a field of 14 teams. The five teams with the lowest score, as well as the low individual not on one of those five teams, will advance to the NCAA Championship.

"This was our main goal," said senior Nicklaus Mason, a Shawnee, Kansas, native whose 71.68 scoring average this season ranks eighth in school history. "The first goal is to get to regionals in order to get to nationals, which is the end goal. We're excited to get back and get to work."

The Bremerton Regional field has a decided Big 12 Conference flavor with No. 1-seed Arizona State, No. 3 Utah, No. 6 Colorado, No. 8 Kansas and K-State set to compete in the 54-hole tournament.

"It'll be fun," said senior Kobe Valociek, a transfer from Virginia Tech, who is second on the team with a 72.32 scoring average. "It'll be fun to compete with them. This is what we worked for all season. This is a great step."

K-State qualified for an NCAA Regional in 2022 and 2023 and came excruciatingly close to a bid last season behind four top-five team finishes.

"It's trending in the right direction," said senior Cooper Schultz, a native of Andover, Kansas, who will be playing in his third-straight NCAA Regional after competing for the Wildcats in 2023 and advancing as an individual a year ago. "Coach always talked about when he first came in how it was a little rough at times, and it's about building a culture. It motivates the guys a lot knowing you're on a team that has regional potential every year and maybe even national potential.

"We have a great group of guys who want the same goal."

While K-State this season has been led by a trio of seniors in Mason, Valociek and Schultz, reaching a team NCAA Regional for the third time in four seasons is plenty big for Robbins, K-State's 11^th-year head coach who earned 2023 Big 12 Coach of the Year honors and has built the men's golf program into a national brand.

This marks the first time K-State has earned a regional bid at least three times in a four-year stretch since 2006, 2008 and 2009.

"We've come a long way," Robbins said. "It's definitely a goal of ours to be a team that's consistently in the regionals. We've gotten to the point now we've made it three out of four years, but also, we've been in discussion for six years in a row, where we've either made a regional or have been one of the first teams out. We've gotten to that point consistently.

"Now it's time to take that next step."

Robbins said that he walked the Gold Mountain Golf Club course a few times on a recruiting trip more than a decade ago.

"It hosted the U.S. Junior there 10 or 12 years ago, and I was there recruiting," he said. "It's good. It's going to be demanding from tee to green. It'll be a very challenging golf course."

The Wildcats, who checked in at No. 58 in the latest National Collegiate Golf Rankings, come off an eighth-place finish in the Big 12 Championship last Thursday, and have put together one of the finest seasons in program history behind a 288.32 scoring average that ranks fifth in school history and five top-five finishes that are tied for ninth.

K-State won the Wildcat Invitational in September, finished second at the Colleton River Collegiate in early March, and finished third at the Steelwood Collegiate and Hal Williams Collegiate to end the fall and begin the spring.

Robbins looks ahead to the Big 12 teams that'll occupy Bremerton in a couple weeks.

"It sets up well for us," he said. "The teams that are in that regional, there are five Big 12 teams, so they're teams we're familiar with, and maybe it'll give us a little more comfort because we can compete with those guys. It's a pretty good draw for us."

The Wildcats hope to make the most of their opportunity.

"The ultimate goal is to win the national championship," Robbins said. "We never really talk about it. It's something we talk about at the beginning of the year, but we're trying to get better each day, and each tournament we're trying to improve."

Perhaps no golfer this season has shown more improvement than Mason, who has produced two of the top-10 rounds in school history this season, and who has both of K-State's individual wins. His two career wins are tied for third in school history, while he is tied for 10^th with six top-five finishes in his career.

Mason is eager to join Schultz and Valociek for one last senior ride.

"It's no fun being back home the second week of May not doing anything," Mason said. "Hopefully, we'll make our last run a good one."

Kansas State University Athletics

First Goal Accomplished, but Time to Take the Next Step

Players Mentioned

Nicklaus Mason

Cooper Schultz

Kobe Valociek

Related Videos