ERIE — All Colorado State coach Jamie Bermel wanted was for his men’s golf team to have a chance.
Now the real fun — and pressure — begins.
Colorado State, seeded 11th among 13 teams at this NCAA regional, enters today’s final round at Colorado National Golf Club in a tie for sixth place at 4-under par, just one stroke out of fifth. The top five finishers qualify for the NCAA championships, May 31-June 5 in Stillwater, Okla.
Talk about being on the bubble. Eighteen holes remain. Almost no margin for error.
“We just have to go out there and leave it all on the course,” said CSU’s Kory Harrell, a junior from Colorado Springs who shot a 1-over-par 73 Friday. “We have to play the best that we can and let the scores decide it, instead of shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Bermel doesn’t want his team thinking about near-misses the past two years at regionals when the Rams were bitten by bogeys down the stretch and failed to advance.
“We’ve talked all week about just going out and play and say that your next shot is the most important shot,” Bermel said. “That way you don’t get ahead of yourself.”
Ironically, it has to be encouraging that CSU didn’t slide much Friday despite having to throw out a forgettable 82 by Zahkai Brown, the junior from Arvada and Pomona High School. One of the Rams’ top players, Brown doesn’t figure to do that again. In the opening round he tied the course record with a 7-under-par 65. For each round, a team counts the best four scores among its five players.
Top-ranked Oklahoma State (a ridiculous 25-under par) is breezing to the team title, and third-seeded Auburn (9-under) also appears to have a spot among the top-five locked up. Fifth-seeded Clemson (6-under), second-seeded Georgia (6-under), Texas Christian (5-under), Arizona State (4-under) and CSU find themselves in a game of musical chairs — three available spots for five teams.
This isn’t the time to play defensively, Arizona State coach Randy Lein said.
“You still have to be somewhat aggressive,” Lein said. “There are too many good teams here to try to protect what you’ve done. If you start looking over your shoulder, that’s when you make bogeys.”
Oklahoma State senior Kevin Tway tops the leaderboard for individual honors at 7-under par through 36 holes after matching the course record Friday with a 65. He is the son of touring pro Bob Tway.
University of Denver coach Eric Hoos never likes to look at the scoreboard because he fears it might influence the way he coaches. But Hoos couldn’t resist and took a peek during an hourlong weather delay.
Hoos should have looked earlier. At one point, his Pioneers had charged up the leaderboard, moving from a tie for ninth after the opening round to a tie for sixth.
Denver, with three first-year players in its lineup, finished the day at 7-over par through 36 holes and in a tie for 11th.
“On the back nine, we started making freshman mistakes,” Hoos said.
The CU men’s team was not picked to a regional but is serving as the official host here.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
