INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Committee announced both the teams and individuals selected to participate in the 2022 NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships earlier this week and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) will be represented by three individuals at this year’s prestigious event.
Southwestern junior Christian Rodriguez, Texas Lutheran junior Chase Maus and Trinity first-year Jacob Mason will all vie for an individual national title as the SCAC represents half of the six individual invitations extended by the committee.
Rodriguez, the 2022 SCAC Champion, is currently the 28th ranked player in the country with 72.82 adjusted scoring average. He as amassed an in pressive 43-26 record against other opponents ranked in the top 100 this year. In addition to leading the Pirates to an SCAC title last month, Rodriguez earned individual medalist honors at the West Region Invitational, firing rounds of 73, 65, and 74. His round of 65 tied the course record and tied the low individual round in Southwestern Men's golf history.
Maus is the first Bulldog to compete in the NCAA Championships since Colin Uecker represented TLU at the 2019 event. Currently ranked 39th in the country with a 73.55 adjusted scoring average, Maus finished 15th in April’s SCAC Championship and was named an All-Tournament selection. Maus tallied four top five finishes this spring - including two runner-up finishes in the Texas Cup and West Region Invitational. In 10 events this season, including the fall, Maus has a total of six top five finishes including a win at the Crusader Invitational in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
Trinity’s Mason is the 38th-ranked NCAA Div. III player overall per Golfstat.com’s metrics as the Tigers will be represented in back-to-back National Championships for the first time since the 1979 season. The Tigers' midseason newcomer rides a solid stretch of tournament play over the last month with top-five finishes in back-to-back events between the Texas Cup (March 19-20) and the West Region Invitational (April 4-5), resulting in fourth and second-place finishes overall. Mason posted a rate of four-under over the five combined rounds of those events.
The championships, which will be held May 10-13 at Mission Inn Resort and Club, in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida and will be hosted by Oglethorpe and Greater Orlando Sports Commission. The team and individual champions will be determined after 72 holes of play or the conclusion of the last fully completed round. Forty-three teams and six individuals not on one of those teams will be selected to participate in the championships. After 36 holes of competition, the field will be cut to the top 18 teams and top six individuals not on one of those teams.
A total of 221 participants will compete at the 2022 championship. Thirty-two conferences were awarded an automatic qualification for the championships. Two teams were selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final nine berths were reserved for Pool C, which are institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams. The six individuals are selected from the remaining players who have not qualified with a team.
To view the complete NCAA release, click here.
