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UL's golf team departs today for its first NCAA Tournament appearance in six seasons, but members of the Ragin' Cajun squad have been doing a lot more than just preparing for the regional outing.
Senior Peter Badawy and junior Michael Smith both played in U.S. Open local qualifying tournaments Monday, Smith playing near Destin, Fla., and Badawy in the Washington, D.C. area. Both were scheduled to arrive back in Lafayette late Monday night to prepare for today's departure for Atlanta.
UL will open play in the NCAA East Regional tournament Thursday at The Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Ga., joining a 27-team field that will qualify 10 teams for the NCAA national meet May 30-June 2 in Williamsburg, Va.
"A lot of these guys have been busy with a lot of things," said Cajun coach Bob Bass. "Most of them had finals right up until Friday and some of them have been in qualifying for some other tournaments. We were able to get in some practice over the weekend."
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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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Badawy and Smith were two of the main reasons the Cajuns are NCAA bound. Badawy was the individual runner-up at the Sun Belt Conference Championships with back-to-back three-under 69 scores in that tournament's final two days, and Smith rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt in a sudden-death playoff that gave UL the team title over Middle Tennessee.
The Sun Belt crown came with the league's automatic berth into the NCAA meet, and the Cajuns got their East Regional assignment last Monday - an unexpected one, since UL is located in the Central Regional and since the last two Sun Belt teams wound up in the West Regional. The Central meet is in Sugar Grove, Ill., and the West regional is in Tempe, Ariz., both also running Thursday-Saturday.
"We were a little surprised," Smith said. "I kind of thought we'd go west, but it doesn't matter where you go to play. Golf's a little different. It's you and the golf course, unlike some sports where you play against someone else."
UL is seeded 20th out of the 27-team East field that includes eight conference champions and 19 at-large selections. Denver, which finished fourth in the Sun Belt meet, received an at-large invitation to the West Regional.
In addition to Badawy and Smith, the Cajun lineup will also include junior Morgan Landry, sophomore Devin Carrey and freshman Kyle Pritchard. Pritchard replaces junior Justin Lowe, who tied for sixth individually in the Sun Belt meet but has to resolve academic issues.
Teams will play practice rounds Wednesday prior to an evening banquet, and will play three 18-hole rounds Thursday-Saturday over the 7,020-yard par-72 Lakeside layout.
LAGNIAPPE: Two members of the UL squad, redshirt Seth Dufrene and junior college signee Dustin Petit, both played at The Farm d'Allie course Monday in qualifying for the Louisiana Golf Association's State Amateur tournament.
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