Little Rock Begins Regional Play Monday at Palm Beach Gardens

2022 NCAA PALM BEACH GARDENS REGIONAL
Dates	Monday, May 16 - Wednesday, May 18
Format	18 holes each day (54 total)
Times	6:30 a.m. tee times from holes 1 and 10
Location	Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Course	PGA National
Teams (Seed)	Vanderbilt (No. 1), Florida (No. 2), Notre Dame (No. 3), Florida State (No. 4), Purdue (No. 5), New Mexico (No. 6), South Florida (No. 7), Little Rock (No. 8), College of Charleston (No. 9), Indiana (No. 10), San Diego (No. 11), Davidson (No. 12), Loyola Maryland (No. 13), Charleston Southern (No. 14)
Scoring	GolfStat.com

2021-22 Little Rock Men's Golf Statistics (PDF)
 
Opening Tee
Little Rock makes its second-straight NCAA Regional appearance, traveling to PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, May 16-18, 2022.
 
Regional History
The 2022 Trojans are the fourth Little Rock program to qualify for an NCAA regional, joining the 2000, 2001 and 2021 squads. Last season was a historic performance for Little Rock as the Trojans finished fifth at the Stillwater Regional, advancing to the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history. In 2000, the Trojans competed in Victoria, Texas, finishing tied for 18th with Manuel Bermudez the top finisher, tying for 44th with a 2-over 218. The following season, Little Rock tied for 20th in Stillwater, led by Casey Yates and Luke Bakke both tying for 30th at 6-over 222.
 
Regional Information
The 2022 NCAA Palm Beach Gardens Regional will be a 54-hole event, held Monday, May 16 through Wednesday, May 18 at PGA National, a par-72, 7,048-yard course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Tee times will begin each day at 6:30 a.m. CT each day as the Trojans will tee off from hole one beginning at 7:25 a.m. CT Monday as the number eight overall seed. Live scoring will be available through GolfStat as the top five teams will advance to the NCAA Championships May 27 to June 1 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
 
Regional Field
Little Rock enters the Palm Beach Gardens NCAA Regional as the number eight seed, the highest in program history, as the Trojans rank 45th in the latest GolfStat rankings.  Little Rock will go up against number one seed Vanderbilt (No. 3 nationally), along with Florida, Notre Dame, Florida State, Purdue, New Mexico and South Florida. Behind the Trojans in the seedings are College of Charleston, Indiana, San Diego, Davidson, Loyola (Maryland) and Charleston Southern as the Trojans will play with South Florida and College of Charleston in the round one groupings.
 
Trojan Lineup
Head coach Jake Harrington will use the same lineup Little Rock utilized to clinch the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Championship, anchored by Golfer of the Year Anton Albers and his program-record 70.70 scoring average. Albers will be joined by All-Sun Belt honorees Magnus Lomholt (72.32) and Jansen Smith (72.79) as well as Marcel Rauch (73.90) and Nico Horder (75.24).
 
Conference Champions
Little Rock clinched the third Sun Belt Conference title in program history and the first since 2021, winning the championship April 27 at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado. Little Rock tied Georgia Southern through the 54-hole stroke play event at 25-over 889, earning the number two seed in the match play championships. The Trojans bested three-seed UT Arlington 3-2 in the semifinals off wins from Lomholt, Smith and Rauch, then bested Georgia Southern in the championship 3-1-1 with victories from Rauch, Horder and Smith, rallying on the 16th and 17th holes to secure the victory.
 
2021 Regionals
Little Rock had a dramatic run to close out the 2021 NCAA Stillwater Regional, finishing fifth at 15-over 879 to secure its first-ever spot in the NCAA Championships. Sitting in seventh place with three holes to play, Little Rock saw all five players birdie the par-five 18th hole, including the putt from Lomholt to secure the Trojans' first-ever spot in the Championships as Little Rock finished one shot better than both Auburn and Baylor, the two teams it was playing with in the final round pairings. Anton Albers tied for 10th and Magnus Lomholt tied for 14th, the best individual regional showings in program history.
 
All-Conference Honors
After clinching the Sun Belt title at Mystic Creek, Little Rock brought in a handful of well-deserved accolades, including a pair of major conference awards. Anton Albers was tabbed as the Sun Belt's Golfer of the Year while Jake Harrington claimed the league's Coach of the Year, joining Trojan Hall of Famer Wyn Norwood as a two-time honoree. Albers was named to the all-conference first team, joined by Magnus Lomholt with Jansen Smith earning second team honors. It is the first time in program history Little Rock has had three players named a first or second team all-conference selection in the same season.
 
Experience Counts
Little Rock will have the luxury of experience when it comes to postseason play as four of the five Trojans competing in Florida were part of Little Rock's historic run in 2021. Anton Albers, Magnus Lomholt, Marcel Rauch and Nico Horder all competed both in the NCAA Regionals and NCAA Championship last season and were part of both Sun Belt match play championship runs.
 
National Rankings
Heading into this week's NCAA Palm Beach Gardens Regional, Little Rock is ranked 45th in the latest GolfStat rankings, sitting as the number one ranked team in the Sun Belt, ahead of Georgia Southern at number 49. Individually, Little Rock's Anton Albers sits at number 32, currently making him the third-highest ranked golfer in program history behind Daniel Fox in 2000-01 (No. 20) and Patrick Sullivan in 2004-05 (No. 31).
 
Record Watch
Heading into the postseason, Little Rock has a handful of program marks within its sights. As a team, the Trojans boast a team scoring average of 287.70, which would currently be the number two mark in program history behind the program-record 286.97 set in 2018-19. Individually, Anton Albers boasts a scoring average of 70.70, which would currently put him first in program history ahead of Justin Warren's 71.41 average in 2018-19. 
 
Going Low
Little Rock has seen a number of impressive performances this season as the team has combined for 69 individual rounds of par-or-better, led by 19 from Anton Albers, which currently ranks fifth in program history. Albers has recorded par-or-better scores in 19 of his 27 rounds this season, scoring in the 60s 10 times. Magnus Lomholt has notched 17 par-or-better rounds, scoring in the 60s five times, with Jansen Smith posting 14 par-or-better rounds with seven rounds in the 60s.
 
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