Instead of caps and gowns, they will don golf shirts. Tim Donovan and Jeff Marr will skip their Xavier commencement Saturday to play in the NCAA golf tournament.

        For two teammates who bonded as they led the Musketeers to their first NCAA appearance, this is every bit as big a celebration.

        “I always knew I'd be graduating from college,” Marr said. “This is almost like graduating from golf. To devote the time and effort into something you have a passion for, and to come to a finale like this, is really special.”

        Xavier competes in the East Regional today through Saturday in Williamsburg, Va. It advanced here with an automatic bid for winning the Atlantic 10 tournament. When XU won its only other A-10 championship, in 1998, the league's automatic-qualifier bid didn't exist.

        The top 10 finishers in each of the three regionals this weekend advance to the NCAA finals May30-June2 at Duke University.

        Donovan and Marr are near equals as team leaders. Marr averages 73.90 per round, Donovan 74.09. It's the third consecutive season their averages have been within three-tenths of each other.

        Donovan, a St.Xavier High alum, won medalist honors at the A-10 tourney with a 54-hole score of 19-under 197, which broke the school record by 14 strokes. He was named Golf Week's national player of the week and appeared in Sports Illustrated's “Faces in the Crowd.”

        “Jeff and I, our main goal in this final year was to make NCAAs,” Donovan said. “We knew we were capable. But 23-under (the team's school-record total at A-10s) is pretty spectacular.”

        XU's other three scorers are underclassmen: sophomores Bryon Harger (76.11 average) and Tim Smith (75.54), and freshman Matt Makinson (75.62), the A-10's Outstanding Rookie.

        Three other locals begin play today in the Central Regional in Stillwater, Okla. Turpin grad Andy Sanders will play for Houston and Winton Woods grad Kevin Hall for Ohio State, while Miami University's Lee Curry is an individual qualifier.

Cincinnati.com golf guide

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