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Pacer golfers begin quest for fourth NCAA title
5/13/2008 11:47 PM   0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend

By KENTON MAKIN

Staff writer

USC Aiken's golf team will vie for its fourth NCAA Division II Men's championship today roughly 30 miles from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

However, the Pacer golf program has already reached the Division II stratosphere and is arguably one of the elite programs in college golf.

USC Aiken will look to add to the program's legacy at the Memorial Park Golf Course during the first of four rounds this morning and afternoon.

The 25-team field includes USCA, Belmont Abbey, Bryant, Cameron, Carson-Newman, Clayton State, Colorado-CO Springs, CSU-San Bernadino, CSU-Stanislaus, Dominican College-NY, Florida Southern, Georgia College and State, Grand Canyon, Grand Valley State, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indianapolis, Newberry, North Alabama, Nova Southeastern, Sonoma State, St. Edward's, Washburn, Wayne State, West Florida and Western Washington.

"We're always glad to advance, and it gets harder to make it every single year," USC Aiken golf coach Michael Carlisle said. "A lot of schools have put a lot of money and value on their golf programs, which makes (competition) a lot more challenging and a lot more difficult.

"A number of good teams didn't make it, but we're glad we made it," Carlisle added. "It kind of establishes us as one of the elite programs in Division II and speaks a lot about the support in the community and for the players."

Roberto Diaz, Jeff Goff, Ashley Smith, J.P. Solis and Kevin Grady represent the quintet that will compete for USCA in Houston.

The Pacers advanced to the NCAA Tournament, thanks to a dominant victory at the Peach Belt Conference Tournament at Houndslake April 21-22. The 10-stroke win was the Pacers' first of the year, which brought comparisons to a young team in 2004 that won the first of three straight men's national championships.

"There are a lot of similarities between those two teams," Carlisle said. "Both teams were young and are peaking at the right time. We hope to carry some of that momentum over. We want to be a team that will contend."

USCA parlayed its 17th straight tournament appearance into a runner-up finish at the Southeast Regional, which was played in Belmont Abbey, N.C., May 5-7.

Goff finished tied for sixth after shooting 3-over for the 54-hole event, while Diaz and Solis finished in the top 15.

The Pacers cut a 12-shot, first-round deficit to GC&SU down to four after a strong second round but limped to its worst round of the tournament in the final round to finish 13 strokes behind GC&SU.

Carlisle is confident in his players despite the finish and was convinced his players would take something away from the experience.

"You can get something positive out of everything," Carlisle said. "We didn't play well (in the final round), yet played well enough to make it a very good finish."

Diaz and Goff, PBC All-Conference selections, will enter today's play with added motivation.

The Pacers' string of national championships was snapped in 2007 in last year's Southeast Regional at the expense of Diaz and Goff, the former of which won two championships in his first two years as a Pacer.

Goff joined the team after a torrid 2006 summer in which he won the S.C. Amateur tournament.

"No doubt, those two guys are our team leaders and other players look up to them because they have a lot of experience," Carlisle said. "Roberto is the last player on our team to play in the national championship, and he's got the experience of international competition, so I look for both of those guys to be able to handle (pressure)."

The Pacers will battle the highly-touted field with an interim coach that's quite familiar to the national stage. Scott Brown, who has served as interim coach because of an illness Carlisle suffered in late February, was a part of the Pacers' national championship teams from 2004-2006.

"Scott's done a great job and we both see things the same way," Carlisle said. "We're both cut from the same cloth, and the players are in very good hands with Scott."

The Pacers competed in Texas earlier this season at the Border Olympics in Laredo. USC Aiken finished third out of 15 teams.





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