Two Hokies earn NCAA men's golf berths

Mark Lawrence and Sarit Suwannarut to play in West Lafayette Regional

May 4, 2017

Virginia Tech men’s golfers Mark Lawrence and Sarit Suwannarut have been selected to compete in the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship’s West Lafayette Regional on May 15-17, as announced Thursday afternoon by the NCAA.

The duo are two of 45 individuals selected for six NCAA regional sites. There are 81 teams competing for the team title this season. Lawrence is the second seed and Suwannarut is the seventh seed out of 10 individuals in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Lawrence, a sophomore from Richmond, Virginia, leads the Hokies in stroke average at 71.34 and “Crunch Time” average at 71.00. Lawrence had three top five, one top 10 and one top 20 finish this season. His season-best finish was fourth place at the General Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in March.

Suwannarut, a freshman from Bangkok, Thailand, is second on the team in scoring at 71.57 and third in “Crunch Time” average at 72.91. He had two top five finishes and three top 20 finishes this season. He finished third in each of the Hokies’ first two events of the fall and tied the school record of 64 in his first collegiate round at the Joe Feaganes Marshall Invitational in Charleston, West Virginia in September.

The West Lafayette Regional will be played May 15-17 at the Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Pete Dye-designed course is a par 72, 7,411-yard layout.

This is the first NCAA appearance for both Lawrence and Suwannarut. It marks the second consecutive season that the Hokies have had a player selected to compete in the regionals. Last season, Joey Lane competed in the Franklin Regional, outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

The top five teams and the top individual not on an advancing team will qualify for the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship finals. The finals this season will be played May 26-31 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

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