Michigan
NCAA Purdue Regional
Thomson Readies for Trip to NCAA West Lafayette Regional
5/9/2024 10:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For the first time in six years, a University of Michigan men's golfer will be in the NCAA postseason after junior Hunter Thomson was selected as an individual participant for the West Lafayette (Ind.) Regional, Monday through Wednesday (May 13-15) at Purdue's Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex. Thomson will be vying for one of the top individual spots to advance to the NCAA Finals. The course is scheduled to be set up for a par 72 and 7,465 yards.
Notes
• In his first career NCAA postseason event, Thomson is one of 10 individuals playing at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex. There are six regional sites comprised of 81 teams and 45 individuals. The top five teams and top six individuals of non-qualifying teams from each regional advance to the NCAA Finals in Carlsbad, Calif., at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa.
• The West Lafayette Regional features 13 teams and 10 individuals vying for a spot to advance to the NCAA Finals. The list of teams (by seeding) at the regional include No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 2 Arizona, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 New Mexico, No. 5 Purdue, No. 6 San Diego State, No. 7 Mississippi State, No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 College of Charleston, No. 10 Stetson, No. 11 Colorado State, No. 12 Southern Illinois and No. 13 Tennessee Tech.
• Seeding for the 10 invited individuals includes No. 1 Caleb VanArragon (Valparaiso), No. 2 Thomson (Michigan), No. 3 Cameron Huss (Wisconsin), No. 4 Barend Botha (Toledo), No. 5 Valentin Peugnet (Illinois State), No. 6 Owen Stamper (Middle Tennessee), No. 7 Alex McCulla (Illinois State), No. 8 Ty Gingerich (Cincinnati), No. 9 Luke Fuller (Western Kentucky) and No. 10 Ben Ortwein (Rider).
• Thomson becomes the fourth Wolverine to earn a regional invitation and the first since Kyle Mueller in 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. Mueller went on to win Ohio State's regional at the Scarlet Course (208, -5) to advance to the NCAA Finals. U-M's other two individual regional bids include Matt Thompson in 2012 (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Chris O'Neill in 2014 (Sugar Grove, Ill.).
• The Big Ten has nine representatives at an NCAA Regional -- six teams and three individualsss. No. 5 seed Northwestern and No. 11 seed Michigan State will be at the Chapel Hill Regional, while host and No. 5 seed Purdue, along with No. 8 seed Indiana and individuals Thomson (Michigan) and Cameron Huss (Wisconsin) will be at the West Lafayette Regional. No. 3 seed Illinois is headed to the Stanford Regional with Minnesota's Ben Warian, while No. 6 seed Ohio State will play in the Baton Rouge Regional.
• Thomson is having a record-breaking season, leading U-M with a 70.39 scoring average -- a program-record pace. No Wolverine has finished a season with a sub-70 scoring average. He has recorded 26 of his 36 rounds at or below par with a team-best 21 sub-par tallies and 16 sub-70 rounds. Opening the spring season, Thomson fired a career-low 64 (-8) to tie U-M's second-lowest single-round score record.
• Thomson was named to the All-Big Ten first team, becoming the first Wolverine in six years to receive the conference accolade. He is the first Wolverine to earn first-team honors since 2018 when former U-M great Mueller earned a spot three straight seasons.
• Thomson paced the Wolverines in nine of his 12 events and won his first collegiate event at the Palmas del Mar Collegiate (Feb. 11-13) with a career-low 201 (68-69-64) 54-hole total. He added a pair of runner-up finishes at the Island Resort Intercollegiate (Sept. 3-4) and the Everett Buick GMC Classic (Oct. 16-17). Thomson posted a second straight top-10 finish at the Big Ten Championships (April 26-28), tying for eighth.
• With seven sub-par 54-hole totals, Thomson averages 211.17 per event, nearly five shots under par. His 201 career-best at the Palmas del Mar helped him tie U-M's second-lowest single-round total in program history, trailing only Mueller's U-M record 198 (69-65-65, -15) at the 2015 Alister MacKenzie Invitational.
• Thomson owns two of the top three best individual 54-hole totals in U-M history -- the 201 total and a 202 (71-65-66, -14) at the 2023 Island Resort Intercollegiate (Sept. 3-4) in the season-opening event. Overall, Thomson has 16 sub-par 54-hole totals in 35 career events.
Players Mentioned
