Arkansas gets national seed in NCAA golf tournament

Arkansas golfer Maria Fassi smiles after finishing her round on Monday, June 19, 2017, during the local qualifier for the LPGA Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship presented by P&G at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

— Arkansas’ women’s golf team received the No. 3 overall national seed and will play in the Austin Regional in next month’s NCAA Championships.

The Austin Regional includes three other SEC teams — No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Auburn and No. 10 Texas A&M — as well as five other Texas schools and eight conference champions, including the host Texas Longhorns.

Regional championships begin May 7 and, from regional competition, 24 teams and 12 individuals will advance to the national championships in Stillwater, Okla., May 18-23.

NCAA Austin Regional Field

Arkansas*

Texas*

Michigan State*

Florida

Auburn

Oklahoma

Houston*

Miami

Baylor

Texas A&M

BYU

East Carolina

Texas Tech

Virginia Tech

Texas-San Antonio*

Georgetown*

Houston Baptist*

Missouri State*

*-Denotes conference champion

“I think of rankings and seeds as a number. The first part of the year we’ve taken care of business, and this is a new season for us,” Arkansas coach Shauna Taylor told Golf Channel during Wednesday's NCAA selection show. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity to go to Austin and take care of business and hopefully have a chance to win a championship.”

Taylor, in her 11th season at Arkansas, said she has been to the University of Texas Golf Club course a couple of times and taken previous teams there in the past.

“I know this current teams hasn’t been there, but I think it’s a great golf course,” she said. “I think we’ve been in places this season that will prepare us for what we see there. I think we go there with a lot of good things to train for for the next week or so. We look forward to competing down there.”

The Razorbacks are coming off their first ever Southeastern Conference championship. Arkansas held on to defeat No. 10 South Carolina by a 3-2 count in the match play Sunday in the finals.

Alabama, who the Razorbacks beat 3-1-1 on Saturday, will enter play as the No. 2 overall national seed. UCLA is the top national seed and Duke is the No. 4 national seed.

This year’s golf championships will air on Golf Channel, where more than 100 news and tournament hours are planned for both men’s and women’s championships.