Chattanooga Mocs junior golfer Wes Gosselin is having quite a year. It continues Monday with the first round of the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regionals.
“It's a great opportunity,” Gosselin shared. “I'm really excited to get down there and play. I wish the whole team could be there competing, but I think we made good progress as a group this year. I'm looking forward to getting down there and hopefully representing us well.
“It's a great course. I think it will fit my game well.”
The three-day, 54-hole event takes place at Ol’ Colony Golf Complex.
Thirteen teams and 10 individuals take to the course with one goal, qualifying for the NCAA Championships at Eugene Country Club May 27-June 1.
The top five plus the low individual on a non-advancing squad earn a spot at the finals. The Mocs have twice qualified as a team, in 2009 and 2012, while then-senior Chris Robb claimed an individual berth in 2014 en route to earning All-American honors.
“The way regionals work, it's really hard to put a number on it,” he explained. “I could finish second and not advance or 26th and make it. I'm not going to focus on that too much. Just really happy with where my game is right now, mentally and physically.
“I'll try to play the golf I've been playing and not worry too much about it. I have high expectations for myself, but I'm not going to dwell on that on the golf course.”
Ol’ Colony is a long tract. Playing at a par of 72, it is set up at 7,514 yards. Six par 4s extend past 450 yards, while the shortest par 3 is the 191-yard 17th.
“The early preparation tells me it is going to be really important how I'm hitting my driver,” he continued. “That's been an area of emphasis, but it's really about tightening up the whole game.
“To make it through a great field like this, every part of my game has to be sharp.”
Gosselin is the first UTC men’s golfer since Neil Connolly in 1993 to earn an at large berth in the event, while the team has eight appearances, all since 2007. It starts on Monday and concludes with a final 18 on Wednesday.
This is not his first experience with NCAA Regionals. He was a member of the five-man group that played in the Eugene Regionals in 2014 where Robb advanced to the NCAA Championships.
Gosselin is a 2016 All-Southern Conference performer. His 72.29 stroke average is fifth-best in school history with five top 10s with two top 5s in 2015-16.
His campaign ranks near the top of several key records. Along with the scoring number, his 21 par or better cards is one off the school record set by All-American Stephan Jaeger in 2012. Gosselin is 13 birdies (119) shy of Derek Rende’s mark of 132 (2007-08), while his 4.07 scoring average on par 4s is just behind Jonathan Hodge (4.04, 2007-08) and Jaeger (4.06, 2011-12).