James Byrne keeps his nerve and Arizona State squeeze through to

 next week's big college climax - the NCAA Championships

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Banchory’s James Byrne will be competing for Arizona State University in next week’s NCAA Men’s National Championships – the climax to the 2009-2010 US college golf season – at the Honors Course, Chattanooga in Tennessee.

But it was a close run thing in the Southeast Regional qualifier at Atlanta’s Capital City Club’s Crabapple course this week.
Only the leading five teams from a field of 13 qualified at the end of 54 holes and
Oklahoma State, Clemson and Georgia Tech had the top three places “locked up”
That left the five-man teams from Arizona State, Georgia Southern, Brigham Young and South Alabama neck and neck in the struggle to claim the last two qualifying spots at Chattanooga.
Byrne, by his own high standards – he’s a contender for a Walker Cup team place at Royal Aberdeen in 2011 – has not been playing well. He had disappointing scores of 76 and 75, running up two triple bogeys and two double bogeys, over the 7,182yd par-70 lay-out in the first two rounds at Capital City Club.
But when the pressure was on over the last few holes of the final round, Byrne was equal to the occasion and he parred the last six holes to be one of the heroes for Arizona State University’s cause.
James modestly told me in an E-mail this evening from Arizona:
"Although I did well to par the last six holes, two of my team-mates performed incredibly down the stretch as well. Our senior (4th year) Knut Borsheim birdied four of his last 5 holes. and Scott Pinckney - who you may remember played in Scotland for two months last summer  - birdied his last hole as our last man with a six-iron, for us to qualify by ONE shot.
"I have experienced individual successes over the years but this feeling, to finish the way we did and qualify the NCAA Championship, was as good if not better. Hopefully we can take that momentum into next week."
Arizona State tied with Georgia State for fourth place, both teams totalling 863 .. one shot ahead of Brigham Young and two clear of South Alabama. It was that close. The leading three qualifiers were Oklahoma State (841), Clemson (843) and Georgia Tech (845).
There is still time, of course, for Byrne to finish the US college season in style with a double whammy performance. Although the American coaches place great store on winning the team title, there is also the chance for Byrne to win individual championship if he hits the form that won him a clutch of tournaments on his summer holidays back in Scotland last summer.