CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's golf team will compete in the Horizon League Championship at the Mission Inn Resort El Campeon Course from Friday through Sunday (April 25-27).
The tournament tees off at 7:30 am each day at the par-72, 6,770-yard course.
The Vikings have won four of the last eight league titles, winning the event in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2011. Last year, CSU finished as the runner-up, four shots behind Valparaiso.
CSU has been strong all season, finishing in the top four at six of the 10 events this year, including a runner-up finish at the St. Francis Red Flash Invitational on April 14, CSU's most recent competition. The Vikings shot rounds of 288 and 301 with the final round being cancelled due to inclement weather.
Junior Michael Balcar was the runner-up at the event with rounds of 72-71 (143).
Senior Andrew Bailey is the frontrunner to earn Horizon League Player of the Year honors for the third straight year. He would join former Detroit golfer Mark Sommerfeld (2006-08) as the only players in league history to win the honor three times.
Bailey, who has earned four Horizon League Player of the Week honors this year, leads the league with a 72.07 scoring average, 1.61 shots better than Detroit's Brendan Leonard who is second. Bailey has carded rounds of par or better in 16 of his 27 rounds this year and has five top-five finishes and seven top-10's. He has also won two events.
He is on pace to break Jake Scott's CSU single season scoring average of 72.7 in 2007-08 and Bailey's 73.5 career scoring average is tops in program history.
In his three appearances at the league championship, Bailey shared medalist honors with teammate Michael Klaric as a freshman, tied for 14th as a sophomore and was the runner-up last year.
Balcar has been slotted into the No. 2 position all season and is a strong candidate to earn first team All-Horizon League honors for the second straight season. He ranks sixth in the league with a 74.48 scoring average and has nine rounds of par or better.
Balcar tied for third place at last year's league championship.
Senior Brendan Byrne had a strong showing at last year's league championship, tying for eighth place, including a final round 72. He has been consistent this year and ranks 18th in the league with a 75.70 scoring average. Byrne has seven rounds of par or better this season, including a season low round of 70.
Sophomore Mitchell Moore and freshman Pat Luth have solidified the end of CSU's lineup. Moore is 22nd in the league in scoring average (76.17) and is coming off a 73 in his last round at the St. Francis Invitational. He sports a season-low round of 70 earlier in the spring at the Benbow Invitational.
Luth, a candidate for Horizon League Freshman of the Year, has played in all 27 events and is 33rd in the league with a 77.07 scoring average. He is coming off his best tournament of the year, tying for seventh place at St. Francis with rounds of 73-75 (151).
The winner of the league championship will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships. The selections will be announced live via the Golf Channel on Monday (May 5) at 10:00 a.m. during the Morning Drive.
The regionals will take place from May 15-17 with sites in Auburn, Ala., Columbia, Mo., Raleigh, N.C., Sugar Grove, Ill., Eugene, Ore., San Antonio, Texas.
