May 17, 2002
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Northwestern battled not only the Pleasant Valley Country Club golf course on Friday, but also Mother Nature.
Two different weather delays -- one at 8:42 a.m. and another at 6:07 p.m. -- played havoc with the second-round schedule. The first delay forced the 'Cats to tee off approximately three hours later than originally scheduled. The second delay, which lasted for about 45 minutes, prevented Northwestern and eight other teams from finishing play.
With 12 holes left to be completed by four NU golfers in the second round, the Wildcats are in 15th place (12-over-par) and five strokes behind Illinois and Virginia Tech, who are tied for 10th place. In order to make the team cut for the NCAA National Championships, teams must finish in the top 10 to advance to Columbus, Ohio.
Sophomore Tom Johnson (Fair Oaks, Calif./Del Campo) continued his strong play, shooting 2-under through 15 holes. He is tied for eighth place overall. Johnson, along with Scott Harrington (Portland, Ore./Jesuit), Bjorn Widerstedt (Vasteras, Sweden) and Chris Thayer (Richmond, Va./Godwin), will complete their last three second-round holes at 7:30 a.m. CT on Saturday.
Harrington, Widerstedt and Thayer went a respective 1-over, 1-over and 2-over for Friday's first 15 holes. Widerstedt is 2-over for the tournament and tied for 34th place; Harrington is 3-over and tied for 44th. Thayer, who got off to a rough start with a 7-over on Thursday, is 9-over for the first two days and tied for 102nd place.
Sophomore Casey Strunk (Phoenix, Ariz./Thunderbird) is the only NU player to have completed two full rounds. He is 15-over (80-79=159) for the first two days and is tied for 127th place.
Oklahoma State shot a second-round 281 to remain in first place. The Cowboys shot 287 on Friday to end up at 8-under 568 after two rounds.
Purdue was one of the teams getting in a full round on Friday, and the Boilermakers improved from Thursday's fifth-place finish to a 7-under 569 second-place showing.
First-round leader Bret Guetz from TCU followed up Thursday's 4-under 68 with an even-par 72 on Friday to drop into a four-way tie for fourth with Cody Freeman from Oklahoma, Travis Hurst of Kansas and James Lepp from Illinois.
Complete team and individual results can be found on the web site of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the host school for the event, at
NCAA CENTRAL REGIONAL MEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS Pleasant Valley Country Club, Little Rock, Ark. May 17, 20021 Oklahoma State U. -8 F -7 287 281 568 2 Purdue University -7 F -9 290 279 569 3 Oklahoma, U. of +1 F E 289 288 577 T4 Baylor University +2 F -2 292 286 578 T4 Toledo, U. of +2 F -1 291 287 578 T6 Kansas, U. of +3 F +2 289 290 579 T6 Tulsa, U. of +3 F -5 296 283 579 8 North Carolina State +4 F -2 294 286 580 9 TCU +5 F +4 289 292 581 T10 Illinois, U. of +7 F +2 293 290 583 T10 Virginia Tech +7 F -1 296 287 583 12 Southern Methodist +9 F +6 291 294 585 T13 Alabama, U. of +11 F +7 292 295 587 T13 Colorado, U. of +11 F +5 294 293 587 15 Northwestern +12 15-18 +2 298 - 298 16 Louisiana State U. +17 F +4 301 292 593 17 Texas-Arlington +18 15-18 +3 303 - 303 18 Maryland, U. of +20 12-15 +9 299 - 299 19 Missouri, U. of +26 F +16 298 304 602 20 Lamar University +28 F +10 306 298 604 T21 Houston, Univ. of +29 F +13 304 301 605 T21 St. John's Univ. +29 12-15 +9 308 - 308 23 Arkansas State U. +32 15-18 +6 314 - 314 24 Austin Peay State U. +33 12-15 +8 313 - 313 25 Princeton University +41 12-12 +15 314 - 314 26 Army +48 12-12 +17 319 - 319 27 Jackson State Univ. +89 12-18 +40 337 - 337