James Byrne and Arizona State bow out after play-off for

last of eight places in match-play stages

The NCAA Division 1 championships have gone into the match-play stages at the Honors Course, Chattanooga in Tennessee - but for Banchory's James Byrne the 2009-2010 US college golf season is over.
Byrne, 2011 GB&I Walker Cup team candidate for the Royal Aberdeen match, closed the regulation stroke-play segmentwith his best round of the week - a two-under-par 70 over the testing 7,395yd course to improve his position from joint 67th to a final joint 41st in a field of 156.
But his Arizona State University team failed by the narrowest of margins to be one of the eight teams who qualified for the match-play.
They finished on 868, the same total as Stanford and San Diego. Stanford won the three-way play-off this morning, earning a place against top seeds Oklahoma State in the match-play.
Byrne's one-over-par total of 217 made him the lowest scoring Arizona State University team member over the first 54 holes. He was the only one of the five able to return a sub-par score in the final, all-important round. Team-mate Jesper Kennegard from Sweden, who had jointly led the field with a 68 in the first round, slumped badly with two subsequent rounds of 77 or else Arizona State would surely have qualified.
Scott Langley (Illinois) won the individual title with scores of 70, 68 and 68 for 10-under-par 206.
Welsh international Rhys Enoch (East Tennessee State) was the leading British player in joint 34th position on 216 with scores of 72, 74 and 70.
Garrick Porteous (Tennessee) from Bamburgh Castle finished joint 51st on 218 with scores of 73, 70 and 75.
Darren Renwick, also a student at Tennessee University, from Woking, Surrey, fied for last place in the field of 156 with scores of 82, 77 and 79 for a total of 238.
+Because of his participation in the NCAA championships, James Byrne has missed the Scottish men's open amateur stroke-play (which he did well in at Murcar Links last year) and the St Andrews Links Trophy tournament which teed off today.

FINAL INDIVIDUAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72). Yardage 7,395
206 Scott Langley ((Illinois) 70 68 68.
208 Alex Ching (San Diego) 69 66 73, Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State) 69 68 71.
209 Diego Velasquez (Oregon State) 71 72 66.
210 Henrik Norlander (Augusta State) 68 69 73.
British scores:
216 Rhys Enoch (East Tennessee State) 72 74 70 (jt 34th).
217 James Byrne (Arizona State) 74 73 70 (jt 41st).
218 Garrick Porteous (Tennessee) 73 70 75 (jt 51st).
238 Darren Renwick (Tennessee) 82 77 79 (jt 154th).

TEAMS FOR MATCH-PLAY STAGES
850 Oklhaoma State.
854 Florida State.
858 Georgia Tech.
860 Washington.
861 Oregon.
863 Augusta State.
867 Texas Tech.
868 Stanford (after play-off against Arizona State and San Diego who both also totalled 868).
30 teams took part.
MATCH-PLAY DRAW
Oklahoma State v Stanford, Washington v Oregon, Florida State v Texas Tech, Georgia Tech v Augusta State.