SALT LAKE CITY – Westminster College men's golfer Dan Jensen received an at-large invitation to the 2012 NAIA Men's Golf National Championships, the national office announced today. The 61st annual event will take place at Creekside Golf Club in Salem, Ore, May 22 – 25.
Jensen becomes the first player from Westminster to ever qualify for the national tournament. He earned his invitation by virtue of being the Frontier Conference Individual Medalist for the regular season. The junior from Pleasant Grove, Utah posted a scoring average of 72.8 over 21 rounds during the season.
The NAIA announced the pairings for the first two rounds of the tournament as well. Jensen will tee off at 3:10 p.m. MDT on Tuesday, May 22 from hole No. 10. He will be playing with Omar Tejeira of St. Thomas (Fla.) and Brandon Thompson from Morningside (Iowa) during the first two rounds. Their tee time for May 23 will be 8:20 a.m. on hole No. 1.
The 159-player field is made up of 20 automatic qualifying schools who won their conference/independent/unaffiliated group tournaments, eight team at-large selections based on the final NAIA Men's Golf Coaches' Top 25 Poll, Corban (Ore.) (host berth) and 14 individual qualifiers.
Nine teams that placed in the top 10 at last year's National Championships return to the field, including defending national titlist and second-ranked Oklahoma Christian. The Eagles lost 2011 National Championships individual medalist Oscar Stark to graduation, but return three golfers who participated in last year's event. 2011 runner-up British Columbia is back after receiving an at-large bid, while No. 1-ranked Oklahoma City is poised to improve upon last year's 10th-place finish. The Stars ride into Salem after besting Oklahoma Christian in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships.
The 14 individual qualifiers includes nine automatic selections and five at-large choices. Each of the automatic selections garnered a spot in the National Championships by winning either his respective conference tournament or regular-season individual title. Of the 14, Thane Ringler of The Master's (Calif.) and Omar Tejeira of St. Thomas (Fla.) are the only returnees from 2011. The five at-large participants were chosen by the tournament committee.
None of the top-10 individual finishers return from last year's qualifiers. The highest-placing returnee from the 2011 National Championships is Grand View's (Iowa) Josh Manske, who shot a 74-73-74-72 – 293 to finish 12th. The Cumberlands' (Ky.) Aaron Watkins, who finished tied for 50th at the 2011 championships, leads the nation this season in adjusted scoring average.
