Trahan To Compete In 2001 Master’s

April 4, 2001

Complete Release in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader

By virtue of his victory at the 2000 United States Public Links Tournament last July, D.J. Trahan will compete in the 2001 Masters in Augusta, GA on April 5-8. Trahan will be just the second Tiger to play in the event while he was a Clemson student. Chris Patton made the cut, was the low amateur and finished 39th overall at the 1990 Masters. He had won the 1989 United States Amateur to receive the invitation.

Trahan will play his first two rounds with former champion Fred Couples and longtime PGA tour veteran Stuart Appleby. They have a 10:56 tee time on Thursday.

Trahan is in his sophomore year at Clemson, the youngest Tiger to play in this prestigious event. It will be his first pro tournament, quite an event for the first pro appearance. He has been preparing for it for some time. Winning the Public Links allowed him to practice at August and he estimates he has played 15 practice rounds at Augusta National since last July.

“I am very excited to play at Augusta, it is the dream of any golfer since the time you are a junior,” said Trahan in an interview on March 27. “I am going to take it all in. It will be a great experience. Every idle moment I have been thinking about it.

“I have been playing golf since I was two-years-old. The first memory I have of Augusta is the 1986 Tournament when Jack Nicklaus won. I will never forget that putt on the 17th hole. Now I will be playing there.”

The first former Tiger to play in the Masters was Parker Moore. He played in the 1977 Master’s after finishing in the runnerup spot at the 1976 United States Amateur. Dilliard Pruitt played in the 1992 and 1993 Masters, the only former Clemson player to participate in two Masters. He won the 1991 Chattanooga Classic and that got him the 1992 invitation. He finished 13th that year, the highest finish by a Clemson golfer at Augusta and that got him the invitation for 1993.

Danny Ellis played in the 1994 Masters as an amateur after he finished as the 1993 US Amateur runnerup. He was in his first year out of Clemson when he played at Augusta. Ellis is now on the PGA Tour. Clarence Rose, a 16-year veteran of the PGA, played in the 1997 Masters.

D.J.Trahan Sophomore Inman, SC 6-3 180

Overall: Won the 2000 United States Public Links Championship, a victory that gives him a spot in the 2001 Masters…will become the second active Clem-son golfer to play in the Masters, Chris Patton played in the 1990 event during his senior year after winning the 1989 US Amateur…Patton made the cut and fin-ished 39th…already a veteran of eight USGA events in his career…qualified for the US Amateur in 1996, 1998 and 2000…reached the final eight of the US Junior Ama-teur in 1996…named the Carolinas Amateur Player of the Year for 2000 by the Caro-linas Golf Association…the number-one ranked amateur in the Carolinas…third ranked Amateur player in the United States through tournaments of March 25, 2001…will miss Clemson’s participation in Mexico in the Ford US Collegiate, it is held the same weekend of the Masters…Freshman All-American for the Tigers in 1999-00, he was also named the ACC Freshman of the Year, the first Tiger to win that award…ranked 22nd in the nation according to Mastercard and 33rd by Golfweek at the end of the 1999-00 academic year…back in the top 20 again this year as a sophomore, he is the 16th ranked college player in the nation according to MasterCard rankings as of March 28, 2001…Clemson’s top golfer at the 2000 NCAAs, he shot a six-under-par 282 to finish 15th overall…that earned him honorable mention All-America status…has career stroke average of 72.65, good enough for fourth best in Clemson history…Tiger team is second in the nation in MasterCard poll, third by Golfweek and Golf World entering tournaments of March 31st.

2000-01 Academic Year: Has a 72.87 stroke average for the year entering the Masters…currently has the third best stroke average on Clemson’s third ranked team…trails first-team senior All-Americans Lucas Glover and John Engler…D.J. two top 10 finishes, the second coming at the Chris Schenkel March 24-25, his most recent event…has 10 rounds under par in his 23 rounds this year…season best is 67 at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate on October 16th…career best round as a Clemson Tiger is a 66 in the third round at the Las Vegas Intercollegiate on March 12, 2000…coming off his best tournament of the year, he shot a 212 at the Chris Schenkel to finish third individually…that is his highest finish this year and his best score vs. par…has 72.11 stroke average for the three spring tournaments…Clemson’s top golfer at the Ping Preview at Duke last fall, the site of this year’s NCAA Tournament in June…had a 145 total for the 36 holes, he finished eighth overall against the national field, helping Clemson to third-place ranking…had some outstanding rounds in the fall, including first round 69 at the Carpet Capital Classic and a second-round 67 that helped the Tigers to the championship of the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate…finished the fall with 1-1-1 record in three matches at the Rolex Match Play…defeated Wade Ormsby of Houston 2up in helping Clemson to 4-1 win over the Cougars…his most impressive performance this spring was winning the Jones Cup Matches at Sea Island in February…had a 210 for the 54-hole event and won by five shots over a strong field of All-Americans and top amateurs.

Summer 2000: Won 2000 United States Public Links Championship at Heron Lakes in Portland, OR…eliminated first five opponents in 76 holes, an average close out of the 15th hole…defeated Ben Dickerson, a current junior at the University of Florida, on the 37th hole with a par…Trahan got into the national portion of the event as an alternate, he made the most of his opportunity once he got to Oregon…defeated longtime opponent and South Carolina golfer Kyle Thompson in the semifinals…was the medalist of the 36-hole stroke play portion of the event…first person to be medal-ist in stroke play and then win the championship since 1993…that victory allowed him to go directly to the United States Amateur…got to the match play portion, but lost in the first round…had some outstanding performances in summer of 2000, he was third at the South Carolina Amateur, fourth at the New England Amateur, sev-enth at Rice Planters and seventh at Monroe Invitational.

In 1999-00: Second highest rated freshman in the nation according to MasterCard rankings, he finished 22nd overall… also had a 33rd final ranking in the Sagarin poll for his freshman year..first-team freshman All-American according to the Golf Coach’s Association, the first Tiger so honored…also an honorable mention All-American thanks to his 15th-place finish at NCAAs…that was the top finish by a Tiger at the nationals in 2000..shot 282 for the NCAAs, best ever by a Clemson freshman and fifth best in history regardless of class by a Clemson golfer…his -6 was the fourth best score versus par in Clemson history for an NCAA Tournament event…ACC Rookie of the Year, Clemson’s first ACC Rookie of the Year in golf…named National Player of the Month by MasterCard for March when he won the Las Vegas Invitational with a -9 score…quite a performance against a national field, he won on the third playoff hole…shot a final round 66 to force the playoff…only Tiger to gain an individual victory last year…that 207 tied a Clemson record for low tournament by a freshman and the -9 tied a Clemson record for low tournament vs. par by a Clemson freshman… played in all seven events in the spring and had seven under-par tournaments as a freshman…set Clemson record for rounds in the 60s by a freshman with eight…his season stroke average of 72.48 was best in Clemson history by a freshman and 14th best overall in school history…featured in Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illus-trated (Golf Plus Addition) of April 17th…shot a 68 in his first career round, lowest score by a Clemson player in his first career round in 12 years…shot a 214 and finished sixth at the Ping Preview in his first career event…shot a -5 score at the Golf World, his 211 total was 18th…had 72.11 average for the fall, fourth best on the team, but best fall stroke average ever by a Clemson freshman golfer…had just two of his nine rounds over 75 and those were a pair of 76s in the fall…had four top 10 finishes for the year, the Ping Preview, the San Juan Shootout, Las Vegas and the ACC…just the second freshman golfer in Clemson history to earn first-team All-ACC honors, former teammate Jonathan Byrd was the other.

In High School: Youngest golfer in history to win a round in match play at the US junior Amateur, he won a first-round match when he was just 14 years old in 1994…qualified for the national junior tournament four straight years, he reached match play all four years…reached the final eight in 1996…has reached the stroke play portion of the US Amateur twice, 1996 and 1998, but has not made it to match play…three-time all-state selection at Dorman High in Spartanburg, he was member of Lewis Terry’s Dorman team that won state title in 1998 and 1999…teamed with current Tiger and classmate Michael Sims in taking that title…three-time state cham-pion individually

Personal: Father (Don) is a professional at Verdae Greens in Greenville, SC…born 12-18-80…majoring in recreation and parks administration

D.J. Trahan: “There is no one quite like him in college golf. He is really a phenominal talent. He is a hard worker and knows how to win. He has a big tournament coming up in April. It’s a great opportunity for him and great exposure for Clemson. ” His strength is his ball striking. He can overpower a golf course. We are always working on his putting. He seems to come up with more putting theories than anyone I have seen. But that is OK, because at least he is thinking about it, trying to get better. I think his ball striking can get better and will continue to get better. He is getting stronger, DJ goes at it hard in the weight room. I really think it has helped in his ball striking.”

TRAHAN CAREER TOURNAMENT BY TOURNAMENT1999-2000

2000-01

TRAHAN CAREER STATS