Excitement is the only word that can describe the No. 2 Stanford men’s golf team’s final road trip to the four-day NCAA Championships in Williamsburg, Va. The Cardinal starts today’s competition as the No.12 seed, paired with Tennessee and Oklahoma State for the first and second rounds of play. The following rounds’ pairings will be determined by team score.

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Alvin Chow

Senior Matt Savage takes a swing during the U.S. Intercollegiate Tournament. Savage and teammates Zack Miller, Rob Grube, Joseph Bramlett and Daniel Lim will look to do their best in leading the Cardinal at the NCAA Championships.

With today’s 1:17 p.m. first tee, the time for the Cardinal men to achieve their season-long goal of competing well in the NCAA Championships is finally upon them.

“The guys are super excited to make a run at the title,” head coach Conrad Ray said. “They’ve been able to prove that they are one of the top teams in the country over the course of this season. We want to approach the next couple of days with confidence and just continue to do what we’ve been doing all year. The golf course is great and the forecast is good. I’m really excited for the next days to come.”

The top 15 seeds of the tournament, in order, include: Georgia, Tulsa, Alabama, UCLA, Florida, Southern California, Lamar, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Georgia State, Coastal Carolina and East Tennessee State. The Cardinal will be competing with a total of 30 teams and six additional golfers, including Daniel Summerhays of Brigham Young, Kyle Stanley of Clemson, Chance Piptone of Pennsylvania, Zach Sucher of UAB, Tim Streng of Western Illinois and Dan Woltman of Wisconsin.

The Cardinal was able to take seventh place at the NCAA West Regionals with an overall score of 831 (33 under par). Freshman Joseph Bramlett came through in the clutch for the Cardinal and jumped 13 places to secure himself in a tie for 10th. Bramlett had his best performance on the last day of the tournament, when he notched eight birdies in his final round. He fired scores of 71, 67 and 66 to garner a 12-under-par 204, making up a third of the Cardinal’s 33 under par strokes.

Stanford’s past successes will give it an advantage in the tournament because the team knows how to deal with high-pressure situations. The Cardinal has pulled off team victories six times this year, which is the most since the Tiger Woods era in the mid ‘90s. Stanford also has three individual title holders: senior Zack Miller (Gopher Invitational and the Prestige), junior Rob Grube (CordeValle Classic and U.S. Intercollegiate) and the freshman Bramlett (Puerto Rico Classic).

Stanford also has one of the deepest teams in the nation with five golfers named to the Pacific-10 all-conference teams. Miller, Grube and senior Matt Savage were selected for the first team, while Bramlett made the second team and sophomore Daniel Lim received an honorable mention.

Though the Cardinal has had a large amount of success this season, the men will only be able to use their experiences to guide them in this crucial tournament. The Stanford golfers have just one shot each year to take on the top golf teams in the nation. As any sports fan knows, anything can happen when it comes down to the NCAA Championships.

“I think that the guys are really excited to just get going,” Ray said. “They have played two practice rounds, and everyone is feeling really good about their games on this golf course. We have been [in Virginia] since Saturday, so the anticipation to begin the tournament has only been building since we arrived. There is a lot of golf to be played and the guys just wanted to get it started.”

Stanford is no stranger to the NCAA Championships and hopes to dominate the course in the next few days. This will be Stanford’s 10th appearance since 1990 and its second in the past three years. The last time the Cardinal brought back the NCAA Championship trophy to the Farm was in 1994, when they were held in McKinney, Tex. Tiger Woods won the last NCAA men’s golf individual championship in 1996 in Chattanooga, Tenn., while the team as a whole finished in fourth.

“The guys have had the goal of winning the NCAAs in their sights all year.” Ray said. “Much of what will happen this week will be out of our control, from the weather to the scores we shoot. I like to tell the guys that they need to focus on the things that they can control, like their emotions and what they do before a shot. They need to let the product take care of itself. I think that they have really bought into that and they are ready to take on the top teams in the country this week.”