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Camden’s Cole Anderson and Topsham’s Caleb Manuel will each play in an NCAA Division I Regional Golf Tournament beginning on Monday.
Anderson and his Florida State Seminoles, who qualified for a regional for the 16th straight year, finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament and will play at the regional at the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Manuel, who competes for the University of Connecticut, qualified for the regional as an individual. He will play at the Yale Golf Course in New Haven, Connecticut.
The sophomore tied for medalist honors at the Big East championships with Seton Hall graduate student Gregor Tait. Tait conceded the playoff hole to Manuel because Seton Hall had already clinched a berth in the regional by winning the Big East team championship.
Seton Hall will be one of 14 teams at the Yale Regional and Manuel will be one of five individuals. The top five teams and the low individual who isn’t on one of those teams will qualify for the NCAA Championships at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, starting on May 27.
There will also be 14 teams and five individuals at the Palm Beach Gardens Regional.
Three regionals will have 14 teams and five individuals and three others will have 13 teams and 10 individuals.
Anderson, the 2019 Maine Amateur Tournament champion and three-time Maine Class A schoolboy champion from Camden Hills High School, said he is confident going into the regional.
He is classified as a redshirt sophomore and will have two years of eligibility remaining after this season.
Anderson played a significant role in helping the Seminoles earn a spot in the regional.
Filling in for Dan Bradbury, the Seminoles’ No. 2 golfer who came down sick, Anderson shot a pair of one-under 71s to help Florida State reach the match play semifinals against Georgia Tech.
And he earned half a point in the match play against the Yellow Jackets’ Ross Steelman, the conference’s co-golfer of the month for February.
Georgia Tech won the match 3.5-1.5.
“If a few more putts dropped for me, it would have been a really solid week. It was a great match in match play. We were both four or five under through 17 holes,” Anderson said.
Anderson tied for third at the All-American Collegiate Invitational earlier this season and he also tied for 17th at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational.
“I have gradually improved every year. It’s so tough because once you’re at a certain point, your improvement is so marginal. You aren’t going to drop from a 15 handicap to a five in one year. You hope to get half a shot better here and there,” Anderson said.
Anderson said he talks to Manuel frequently and is elated that he is also in the regionals.
“He is having a great year. He does what Caleb does, he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes,” said Anderson.
Manuel, who is seeded third among the five individuals, has been UConn’s leading scorer the last two years and his career scoring average of 71.7 per round is the best in known program history.
This season Manuel had won two tournaments and posted eight top-10 finishes with 19 rounds of par or better and has 14 sub-70 rounds.