May 6, 2008
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Vanderbilt All-American Jon Curran has been selected to compete in the 2008 NCAA East Region Championship at the Council Fire Golf Club, May 15-17.
After posting four Top 10 finishes this season, Curran was the fifth of six individuals selected from the East Region to compete next weekend in Chattanooga. Curran earned medalist honors for the first time in his collegiate career at the Seminole Intercollegiate in Tallahassee, Fla., this March.
A native of Hopkinton, Mass., Curran tied for second place at last season’s NCAA West Regional in Tempe, Ariz., before earning a Top 10 finish at last season’s NCAA National Championship in Williamsburg, Va.
Curran’s performance at the 2007 West Regional spurred Vanderbilt to a fifth-place finish and a berth in the NCAA National Championship. This season, the junior standout will be the lone Commodore featured in postseason play after a new NCAA rule prevented Vanderbilt from earning a team bid.
The Commodores narrowly fell short of reaching the head-to-head winning percentage of .500 or better required by the first-year NCAA legislation. Vanderbilt is ranked 48th in the current Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, but a record of 70-77-5 against all competition kept the Commodores out of the 81-team NCAA field.
Heading into the Southeastern Conference Championships, the Commodores were an even 68-68-5 and needed a sixth-place finish to secure a winning overall record. Vanderbilt struggled to a 10th-place finish — ahead of Kentucky and 38th-ranked Arkansas, but behind the likes of No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Georgia, No. 9 Florida, and six other Top 50 squads.
“We annually try to schedule the best tournaments possible,” VU Head Coach Tom Shaw said. “The new rule that is in place got us this year. It was tough to dig ourselves in a hole early in the season as we were missing key players and trying new guys in the lineup. We played much better with our full complement of players in the spring, but we came up just short.”
Senior Billy Whalen missed four of the Commodore’s five fall events after he was ruled ineligible due to an administrative error in evaluating his transcript when he transferred from Arizona. His services were especially missed during Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate and the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate — two tournaments that saw Vanderbilt at the bottom of formidable fields.
After a shaky fall campaign, the Commodores quickly heated up in the spring. Vanderbilt placed fifth in the stacked field at the Seminole Intercollegiate, and followed that performance up by winning the Kauai Collegiate Cup in Wailua, Hawaii. Two more strong showings at the Furman Intercollegiate and the Bank of America Intercollegiate moved the Commodores back to .500 entering the final weekend of the season.