NCAA Tournament action will kick off for the NC State men’s golf team Monday, as the Wolfpack will travel to the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, California, where it will be the four seed in the NCAA’s Stanford Regional.
NC State will be one of 13 schools competing in the regional, the Pack’s 11th in the last 12 years, which will span three days as it wraps up on Wednesday. The Pack will look to be one of the lowest-scoring five schools at the regional, which would book a trip to the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas later this month.
Last year, NC State hosted the Raleigh Regional of the NCAA Tournament, where it placed third to earn its first trip to the NCAA Championships since 2011. This year at Stanford, the Pack will face a tough field, headlined by top-seeded Arizona State and host Stanford, seeded second.
LSU is the only other school seeded above the Wolfpack, as the Tigers come in with the three seed. Behind NC State in the field is a slew of Power 5 programs, including ACC foes UNC-Chapel Hill, seeded fifth, and Virginia, seeded eighth. The Wolfpack will also see a familiar in-state foe in UNC-Greensboro, seeded 11th. South Florida, Kansas, Ole Miss, Georgia Southern, Augusta and Denver round out the field.
NC State is coming off of a sixth-place finish at the ACC Championships, which took place in April at the Old North State Club in New London, North Carolina. The Pack finished 8 under in that tournament and will likely need to have an improvement at Stanford if it wants to see another trip to the NCAA Championships.
There won’t be much question as to who will compete for the Pack, as NC State has utilized the same starting five golfers for virtually the entire season. Led by senior Stephen Franken and junior Benjamin Shipp, who were both named to the All-ACC team, the Wolfpack will also likely play with sophomore Easton Paxton, junior Christian Salzer and senior Harrison Rhoades.
Franken has been NC State’s best and most consistent golfer for the last few seasons, and he comes into the Stanford Regional with a team-leading stroke average of 70.78. He has six top-10 finishes this season, including four top-fives and a tournament win.
At the ACC Championships this season, Franken tied for 18th (-1), and he also has experience of doing well at the NCAA level. At last year’s Raleigh Regional, Franken finished the tournament at 9 under, tying for fifth place.
Alongside Franken at the head of the Pack will be Shipp, who is averaging 71.19 strokes per round this season. Like Franken, Shipp was very successful at the Raleigh Regional last year, placing third after going 12 under. He tied for 38th at ACCs this season, but has five top-10 finishes highlighted by two tournament wins.
Paxton was the Pack’s best golfer at ACCs, finishing in a tie for ninth place after going 4 under. He also had a strong performance in the NCAA Regional last season, tying for 21st after shooting 3 under. He is averaging 72.88 strokes per round this season.
Salzer is the only one of the Pack’s top-five golfers that didn’t compete at Raleigh Regionals last year, but he is having a solid 2018-19 campaign. He’s averaging 73.30 strokes per round, and tied for 32nd at ACCs with an even score.
Rhoades is one of NC State’s most experienced golfers, which could be vital for the Pack on the big stage. He tied for 18th at ACCs (+1), and at the Raleigh Regional a year ago finished tied for 57th. Rhoades is averaging 73.31 strokes per round.
