The Coastal Carolina men’s golf team is headed to an NCAA regional for the first time in seven years

The Coastal Carolina men’s golf team is participating in the NCAA postseason for the first time in seven years.

The Chanticleers won the Sun Belt Conference championship April 27 at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Mississippi to earn a berth in an NCAA regional, and learned Wednesday they will be traveling to the Pacific Northwest for a regional at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Washington from May 12-14.

The regional features 14 teams and five individuals, and the top five teams and the top player not on those teams will advance to the NCAA championship May 23-28 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

Coastal is seeded 12th in Washington, and the top five seeds are Arizona State, Florida, Utah, South Carolina and South Florida. There are six 54-hole regionals.

“I think this is the best regional for us,” said CCU sophomore Jack Lee of England. “We’ve got three guys who are from international countries and we’re used to playing on the [poa annua] grass that is up there. So it’s going to definitely feel almost like being at home. And I think the team is in such good spirits after the win that I think we’ll be able to just sort of roll with that. We’ve got a few teams there that we really do want to beat, and if we can do that we should be in a good spot.”

Third-year CCU head coach Jacob Wilner, whose teams played Gold Mountain Golf Club several times when he was the coach at Nevada, concurs that the venue is the best of the six regional sites for the Chants.

“Where we’re going is ideal for our team,” Wilner said. “. . . It’s going to be a little bit wet. I have three guys from Europe that are used to playing in this kind of stuff. I think we drive the ball well as a team and I think driving out there is important.

“We’ve got to play some of the best teams in the country, but my gut says this is the perfect place for us. No matter what, wherever we got sent, just go play golf.”

CCU is making its 13th NCAA regional appearance, but just the second as a Sun Belt member, as it won its only other Sun Belt title in 2018.

Coastal needed a late rally by Lee to win the conference championship in the match play final against 2024 conference champion Arkansas State.

With the team match tied 2-2, Lee was two holes down to Chris Somerfield with two remaining when a lightning delay stopped play for more than an hour.

Both players had already hit their tee shots on the 17th hole and were just off the fairway when play was halted, and Lee was a few yards behind so he had the first shot coming out of the delay.

He hit the green with his approach and made par to win the hole after Somerfield missed the green and was unable to get up and down, and won the par-5 18th with a par after Somerfield hit his second shot into a water hazard. Lee then sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to send the Chants to a regional.

“All the guys started running on the green and it sort of caught me by surprise of what I’d actually done,” Lee said. “It was so nice to celebrate with them all. It was from about the 15th hole all the guys started following me, and I could feel the pressure of, ‘I’m not just playing for myself, I’m playing for everyone,’ and that did make me pretty nervous. But I felt like having [assistant coach] Sam [Harned] and coach [Wilner] being around me for the last few holes really helped me settle down and get the job done.”

“It will go down as the best rain delay in Coastal Carolina men’s golf history,” Wilner joked.

CCU also got championship match wins from freshman Drew Sykes of England and senior Trey Crenshaw of Lancaster, who each also won their matches in the semifinals against Troy.

Lee and junior Max Bengtsson of Sweden split their two matches, while senior Trace McDonald of Columbia went 0-2.

Owen Kim of Ontario, Canada, a junior, was also with the team and eligible to play in any round of the Sun Belt tournament, and Wilner said he will take the same six players to the regional. While he has four starters determined, he plans to have a 36-hole qualifier between two players for the final playing spot in the opening round.

“I’m a big believer in competition and sometimes in this business it’s ‘what have you done for me lately,’ and you just want the hot hand,” Wilner said. “The good news is all six of these guys are playing well. . . . I have zero issues making substitutions. My job is to put the best five people on the course at all times, and they know that.”

Coastal Carolina captured the No. 1 seed for match play by posting the lowest team score during 54 holes of stroke play with a 14-under 850, which was one stroke better than Arkansas State. The Chants made up a four-stroke deficit to the Red Wolves in the final round, then defeated Troy 3-2 in the match play semifinals.

The Chants have reached the NCAA finals four times, the last in 2013. CCU reached the finals three straight seasons from 2005-07 with teams that featured All-Americans Dustin Johnson and Zack Byrd, and finished as high as fifth in 2007.

Coastal is ranked 85th in the Scoreboard national rankings with a 74-44-1 record against opponents in events, so the Chants needed the conference title to make an NCAA regional.

Prior to the conference tournament, this spring CCU finished third in the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in California, ninth in the 15-team The Hayt at Sawgrass Country Club in Florida, eighth in the 16-team General Hackler Championship at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, 10th in the 15-team Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate, and seventh in the 10-team Old Corkscrew Intercollegiate in Florida.

Bengtsson was named last week the conference’s Newcomer of the Year and a Second Team All-Sun Belt performer after joining CCU following two years at Tarleton State.

The junior has played in nine events and has a 71.7 adjusted scoring average that is tied for the team lead. He has two top 10s and four top 15s with his best finish being third at the General Hackler Championship with a season-low 8-under total.

Bengtsson tied for 11th in stroke play at the Sun Belt tournament at 2 under before winning his semifinal match against Troy’s Jake Springer and falling to 2024-25 Sun Belt Player of the Year Thomas Schmidt in the finals.

Bengtsson is the third CCU golfer to earn Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year honors, joining Morgan Deneen (2018) and Zack Taylor (2019). 

Sykes, of England, was selected to the All-Sun Belt Third Team after tying Bengtsson for the team scoring lead while recording a pair of top 10s and four top 20s, including a runner-up finish at the JT Poston Invitational.

Washington Regional

Gold Mountain Golf Club – Bremerton, Washington 

Hosted by Washington

Teams (seeded in the following order, with the conference tournament championship won):