The Razorbacks veteran club will have a tough time in the regional round to make another at the NCAA championships in three weeks.
Arkansas men’s golf team will travel to Salem, South Carolina, to play The Cliffs at Keowee Falls, about 25 miles from the Clemson campus. As the sixth seed, they will join the region’s top seeds North Carolina, ACC champion Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, San Diego State, and Georgia Southern.
“What are we, a six seed?” said 2021 SEC individual champion Segundo Oliva Pinto. “We know we have a competitive regional and there’s a lot of good teams there. We’re going there to dominate. That’s our idea, to make it through no matter what.”
The list of players traveling includes Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, Will Gibson, Julian Perico, Manuel Lozada, and Pinto.
This is the 15th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament for Arkansas under head coach Brad McMakin. The Hogs barely qualified for the tournament after finishing 10th in the SEC tournament. However, McMakin is confident that his group can compete with anyone in the region despite the level of competition.
And the players are excited about the opportunity.
“I think we’re going to have a blast,” said Pinto, the SEC individual champion two years ago. “We were determined to make it anywhere we were sent to, and this place is no exception.
The rest of the field includes Purdue, New Mexico, host Clemson, Furman, Middle Tennessee State, Northern Illinois, Long Island University and Longwood.
“It’s a good region,” McMakin said. “There’s a lot of good teams. I just feel like if we play well we can play with anybody. That’s the mindset.
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