2002 Men’s NCAA Golf Championship – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/29/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Arizona Head Coach Rick LaRose
“The key this week is keeping out of the rough. The rest of the course is set up very fast. I think we are going to see some good scores. It’s a hard course. If you shoot par, you are doing a good job. We were fortunate to have five good scores today.”
“When I first saw the course, I thought if a team shoots around par for four rounds they can nail it. This is my fourth or fifth NCAA championships here, with the men and the women. The course was hard during the practice rounds. It’s long and the roughs were penalizing. This is a great course, one of the best.”
“The rain and humidity are not a problem. We play in enough bad weather. We’re used to it, the team is climatized. There are a lot of good teams here, a lot of good teams played this morning and good teams are playing this afternoon. We’re lucky to be in the hunt.”
Arizona sophomore Chris Nallen
“The course was fine. It started raining when I got to 14 and the course was wet. It was soggier and longer. You could fire at the flagstick and the ball wouldn’t bounce. I like playing in the morning better, I think it is an advantage. Tomorrow, I’m going to have to concentrate more, focus more and go from there.”
“I hit a lot of pars. Par is a good score here, I’m happy with it. Anything under or at par is a good score. I’m happy with my start and will try to improve on it in the next three days.”
University of Texas sophomore John Klauk
(On hitting a hole-in-one on the 189-yard number 13, 7-Iron)
“As soon as I hit it, it felt pretty good. It was tracking the whole way. It didn’t drift right or left or anything. I knew it was going to be a good shot, but I didn’t know it was going to go in. It was just one of those things.”
(2nd collegiate hole-in-one; 3rd career hole-in-one)
University of Toledo Assistant Coach Nick Meyers
“We played pretty solid today. We’re in a good position. You can’t win a tournament in the first round, but we’re right where we want to be.”
“It’s nice playing two-and-a-half hours from home. You can have friends and family come down which is really good. The support definitely helps.”
University of Toledo sophomore Brad Heaven
“The rain wasn’t too bad. The wind picked up and made it a little more difficult. With the rough being up it made it a little more tough, but fortunately I was able to keep it in the short stuff and hit greens.”
Florida Head Coach Buddy Alexander
“I have played here and coached here on different occasions and this is the easiest that this course has ever played. Because of the rain the fairways and greens are sticking, which make the conditions perfect for scoring.
“I don’t think that we shot ourselves out of the tournament. We may be six, seven or eight strokes back after today but I don’t think we will need to go home.”
TCU Head Coach Bill Montigel
“I thought that the course was in great shape. The greens were a little slow, but we shot one under today. I really didn’t know what to expect of the course. We have played here in the past and we played really good today.”
TCU senior Andy Doeden
“The rain slowed the shot down a little bit. When the rain came it got a little tougher to play today.”
San Diego State sophomore Mark Warman
“I got off to a great start by birding 10, 11 and 12 and just had a solid golf day after that. I did not miss many fairways and when I did I was not that far off.”
“My expectations were to play the best that I can and that is all that I could expect of myself coming into this tournament.”
On playing as an individual
“There is a positive side and a negative side. The positive is I don’t have the pressure of four other guys counting on me to shoot a great score and the negative side is at times I thrive off of the pressure of my teammates counting on me to play well.”
Colorado Head Coach Mark Simpson (Team Score 280, -4)
“We played here several weeks ago at the Kepler (April 12-13) and came in second. The guys know the course and have some confidence playing here.”
“My thoughts were you never know. I do not see us sliding down. We have never been here before but we have talent.”
Colorado senior Ben Portie (-5, 66)
“I was in the last group to take the course in the morning. I missed a few short ones early on.”
“I saw my team was up on the board and I knew my team was playing very well, so it was inspiration to keep my team up there on the board.”
“My longest putt was about 25 feet and my longest birdie put was between 18-20 on 9 and 10.”
“We have a good chance to do something. Our goal as the team is just to try and make it to the fourth day of the tournament.”
