TCU Men’s Golf Team To Open Play At 2004 NCAA Golf Championship

Adam Meyer

The TCU men’s golf team opens play at the 2004 NCAA Championship on Tuesday, June 1 at the Homestead Resort’s Cascades Course (par 70, 6,679 yard) in Hot Springs, Va. The four-round event, hosted by Virginia Tech, concludes on Friday (June 4). The 10th-ranked Horned Frogs, the Central Region’s No. 6 seed, will be paired with Auburn and Southern Cal, the sixth seeds out of the East and West Regions, respectively, for the tournament’s opening two rounds.

This year’s national champion will be determined after 72 holes of competition with the field trimmed down to the top 15 squads and the lowest six individuals not participating on those teams after the first two rounds. The tee times and pairings for the third and fourth rounds will be determined by the results from the first two days of competition.

TCU earned a berth in the NCAA Championship by tying for fifth place with a final round 11-over par 299 at the Central Regional on May 22. The Horned Frogs finished the three-round event with team total of 901 (+37). All five TCU golfers shot rounds of 77 or better on the final day at the Birck Boilmaker Kampen Course to help the Frogs to their 13th appearance in the national championship tournament and their 10th trip in the last 14 seasons.

TCU is led by Adam Meyer, the reigning Conference USA Player and 2004 C-USA Championship medalist, who has four top-10 finishes and two top-20 finishes in his last six events. Meyer is currently ranked 24th in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and owns the squads lowest stroke average this season (71.81).

In addition to Meyer, the Horned Frogs also boast All-Conference USA First Team performers Colby Beckstrom and David Schultz. Beckstrom has one tournament crown to his credit this season, winning The Prestige at PGA West (Nov. 3-4), while Schultz has three top-10 finishes this year at The Ridges Intercollegiate (T-9th, Sept. 13-14), the All-America Classic (T-3rd, Nov. 24-25) and the Conference USA Championship (T-4th, April 19-21).

Rounding out TCU’s five golfers participating in the NCAA Championship are J.J. Killeen and Stephen Polanski. Killeen is the only current player to have appeared with the Horned Frogs in their last NCAA Championship appearance in 2002. Killeen’s best finish this season was a tie for sixth at the Boilermaker Invitational (April 10-11). He also earned All-C-USA Second Team accolades this year. Polanski, the team’s lone four-year letterwinner, notched a pair of top-20 finishes including a career-best 15th at the league tournament.

NCAA Championship action begins on Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. (ET). Live scoring throughout the tournament can be found at www.golfstat.com.