Lovemark Tries for Two in a Row at NCAA Golf Championships

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Is there a new Tiger Woods in this bunch of collegiate golfers who will be taking the course at Purdue University May 28-31?
Some of the top names on the PGA Tour performed their magic during the NCAA Men's Division I Golf Championships. The upcoming tournament will showcase the best in the future of golf. Tiger Woods won an individual title with Stanford. Phil Mickelson did it three times in four years when he was an Arizona State Sun Devil. The last time the men's golf championship was held at Purdue in 1961, the individual title was won by a young Jack Nicklaus, representing Ohio State.

Jamie Lovemark has already topped one of Tiger Woods feats, winning the NCAA Division I title last year as a freshman. Woods did not win his individual title until his sophomore year in 1996. But the Southern California sophomore is only ranked No. 5 going into the championships.

While Lovemark's team, ranked No. 3 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Index, is the top seed in the 111th annual championships, another hot shot freshman, Oklahoma State's Rickie Fowler is the odds-on favorite for the individual title. Earlier this month, Fowler became the first freshman to win the Ben Hogan Award. Other top-seeded golfers expected to compete for the coveted individual title include Alabama's Michael Thompson, Joel Sjoholm, of Georgia State, UCLA's Kevin Chappell, and Lovemark's teammate Rory Hie. Oklahoma State is seeded fourth in the tournament and ranked No. 5 by Golfweek/Sagarin.

The championships are being held on the Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex on the Purdue campus. The course, a par-72, 7,431-yard challenge from tee to final green, was developed by Pete Dye, one of the leading golf course designers in the country.

Challenging Southern California for the team title will be Georgia, the top ranked Golfweek/Sagarin team, which is seeded No. 2 in the tournament. Alabama may be coming in with a little chip on its shoulders, ranked No. 2 n the country but failing to draw any of the top six seeds. After Southern California and Georgia, seeds three to six went to (in order) Wake Forest (No. 17), Oklahoma State (No. 5), Clemson (No. 14), and Florida (No. 7).

Other teams participating are Alabama-Birmingham, Arizona State, Auburn, Augusta State, Cal-Irvine, Charlotte, East Tennessee State, Illinois, Indiana, Kent State, Louisville, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State, Oregon, Penn State, St. Mary's-California, San Diego State, defending national champion Stanford, Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, Virginia and Washington.

Other individual golfers who qualified for the tournament are James Sacheck, of Texas Christian; Eric Shriver, of Pepperdine; Derek Tolan, of Colorado; Jurrian Van De Vaart, of Virginia Tech and Dan Woltman, of Wisconsin.