There were more than a handful of good golf teams not invited to the NCAA Regionals. 

With automatic qualifiers and national rankings of at large teams, schools with good teams that just missed getting an invitation could start making plans for the summer. 

USC Upstate was one of those teams. The Spartans had a solid winning record inside the final results of  tournaments this year.

For the second time in the last three years Upstate played in the Big South Match Play finals, but came up a putt or two short of earning the automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA Championship.

“We’ve been so close a couple of times,” said USC Upstate coach Todd Lawton. “Our record is comparable to teams in the tournament, but the difference is a putt or two in the conference championship,” he noted.

There are over 1200 mens college golf teams and now a little more than 800 women’s college teams.

Even with championships in Division I, II, III and Junior College there are enough teams with season results similar to Upstate, who would like a chance to play a little more golf.

“Golfweek has stepped in and sponsored the tournament. It is kind of like the NIT in basketball. The NCAA recognized the need for another tournament  and is supporting the tournament,”said Lawton.

Upstate has sent mens teams and individual golfers to the post season, but only Beem Pabsimma has played in the NCAA post season from the women’s team.

Pabsimma was the individual conference champion two years ago and advanced as an individual.

Upstate’s womens’ team will be playing in their first postseason as a team.

“It means a lot to our golfers. This year they won two tournaments. They finished in the top-five three times and had a handful of top-ten finishes. It is great they get a chance to play a little more golf,” said Lawton.

The tournament is set to be played May 9th to 12th (54 holes) at AK-Chin Southern Dunes Club near Phoenix.

This is the second National Golf Invitational. Last year Penn State won the first women’s championship.

This year the field is a mix of a few teams from Power-5 conferences and a lot of Mid-Majors like Upstate.

Arkansas State, Chattanooga, Florida Atlantic, Jacksonville State, Mercer, Rutgers, Santa Clara, UNC Wilmington, and USC Upstate are confirmed to join the tournament. Golfweek is still finalizing the 15-18 team field.

The Upstate lineup will include the same five golfers who played in the conference championship led by Big South All-Conference golfer Preaw Nontarux.

The red-shirt senior will be joined by  Supatta Puttanavarat, redshirt senior Suwarin Yord-In, freshman Rylie Kosney and junior Alexis Rieli. 

“It is great to have this event for teams like ours that had good seasons. It gives our golfers a chance to play one more event, and it also gets them some post season experience that could help in the future,” said Lawton.