AUBURN | The expectations have been there all season long for Auburn's men's golf team. Coming off the program's first national title last year, nothing less than a repeat would be satisfactory.

For Nick Clinard's squad, the friendly confines of the Auburn University Club await as the Tigers host a regional starting May 12. That home-course advantage is significant for the top overall seed in this year's NCAA Tournament, but Clinard is not depending on just that as his team tries to get back to Carlsbad, Calif., for the national finals.

"Obviously, that's great, but all that's thrown out the window," the coach said. "We got to go compete, and we got great opponents coming here and great coaches and great programs, and it's nice to sleep in your own bed. It's nice to stay at home. We have familiarity with the golf course and we'll know what the conditions are like going into that, but we've still got to be ready to go."

Unlike last year, the Tigers don't have the momentum of winning a SEC title as they were defeated by eventual champion Florida in the semifinals last weekend in Sea Island, Ga. Clinard is still thrilled about how his team is performing heading into the national tournament.

"I've been very pleased," he said. "I mean even last week we lost in the semis, but one stroke play the best conference in the country by nine shots. I mean, we set the SEC championship record. I mean, that's incredible."

The familiar five — Jackson Koivun, Carson Bacha, Josiah Gilbert, Brendan Valdes and Cayden Pope — will be the Auburn players trying to return to California.

"They've earned that, right?" Clinard said.

And while the coach can control who goes out when on the first day, that is out of his hands following.

"After that, it's all based on scores," Clinard said. "We just like to send 'em out based on warmup time when they're comfortable, and then also how we want to coach 'em, what groups do we want to be with and things of that nature."

The five teams with the lowest scores in the regional advance to play at the Omni LaCosta Champions Course on May 23-28.

Auburn Regional

No. 1 Auburn

No. 12 Texas A&M

No. 13 UCLA

No. 24 SMU

No. 25 Georgia Tech

Oregon

Purdue

Little Rock

TCU

College of Charleston

New Mexico State

Loyola Maryland

USC Upstate