Clemson Earns Bid To NCAA Tournament For 20th Straight Year

May 8, 2001

Clemson, SC — Clemson received a bid to the NCAA men’s golf tournament for the 20th consecutive year on Tuesday. The Tigers will compete in the East Regional at Golden Horseshoe Country Club in Williamsburg, VA May 17-19.

Twenty-seven teams will compete at each of three NCAA Regional sites. The other sites are Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, OK, the site of the Central Regional, and Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis, OR, the site of the West Regional.

Clemson was one of six ACC teams to receive bids on Tuesday. Georgia Tech, Duke and NC State will join the Tigers in Williamsburg, VA at the East Regional. North Carolina will play in the Central Regional, while Wake Forest must travel to the West Regional.

Ten teams from each of the three regionals will advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be played at the Duke University Course in Durham, NC May 30 to June 2.

Clemson will be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the 20th consecutive years, the 21st time overall and the 18th straight year under Head Coach Larry Penley. That is the longest streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances by any Clemson coach in any sport in history.

Clemson’s current streak of 19 consecutive NCAA National Championship appearances is second only to Oklahoma State’s record 54 straight appearances in the national event. Clemson can make it an even 20 in a row in the national tournament with a top 10 finish at the East Regional. Clemson has a streak of 65 consecutive top 10 finishes, including a streak of 11 straight top 5 finishes this year.

Clemson has won the NCAA East Regional four times, more than any other school. That includes the 2000 season when the Tigers captured the event at Glenmaura Country Club in Scranton, PA. Nationally, only Arizona has won more NCAA regional championships than Clemson. The Wildcats have won five West Regional titles.

Clemson’s 2001 team, ranked third in the nation, is led by senior All-Americans John Engler and Lucas Glover. Engler won the ACC tournament in April and has a 70.81 stroke average for the year. He has a team best seven top 10 finishes. Glover won the Puerto Rico Classic and has a 71.16 stroke average, second best on the Tiger team. He has had five top 10 finishes this season. They rank one-two in Clemson history in career stroke average.

D.J. Trahan is third on the team in stroke average with a 72.92 average. The sophomore, who played in the Masters this past April, is the number-one ranked amateur in the country according to Golfweek.