Clemson Golf Team Travels To Mexico

Tigers Ranked Third In Latest MasterCard Poll

April 4, 2001

The third ranked (MasterCard poll) Clemson golf team will travel to the Ford United States Collegiate in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico April 6-8. It will be Clemson’s second trip to Mexico in history for a college golf tournament. The event will be a three-day 54-hole tournament held on the new Vista Vallarta Golf Course.

Clemson played in the US Collegiate last year and finished second in the 12-team field. That event was held at Eldorado Country Club in Los Cabos, Mexico. Like last year, this year’s tournament will be televised by ESPN. It will be played April 6-8, but will be rebroadcast the following weekend, April 14-15.

The Tigers will take a lineup of three seniors, a junior, and a sophomores to Mexico. The lineup will include seniors Lucas Glover, John Engler and Jani Saari, sophomore Ben Duncan and red-shirt junior Tripp James. This is the first time all year Clemson has used that lineup. The change in the personnel is forced by D.J. Trahan’s participation in the Masters.

This will be James first tournament as a Clemson Tiger. The native of Spartanburg has been playing well in team qualifying tournaments and last weekend finished 27th at the Azalea Amateur in Charleston. He had rounds of 70-70-73-75.

Clemson is ranked second in the nation by MasterCard, third by Golf World and third by Golfweek through tournaments of April 1. Clemson has ranked in the top three in the nation in every poll all year. The Tigers have won the jerry Pate Intercollegiate and have had two second-place finishes and four third-place finishes. Clemson has ranked in the top five in all nine of its events so far this year. That includes the Rolex Match Play.

Clemson features senior All-Americans Lucas Glover and John Engler. Glover took medalist honors at the Puerto Rico Classic and has a 70.69 average for the year, a Clemson single season record pace. He has five top 10 finishes for the season. Engler has a 71.04 stroke average for the year and also has five top 10 finishes for the season.

Ben Duncan played his first event of the spring at the Chris Schenkel and responded with a 15th-place finish and even par (216) score for the three days. It was his best finish in a college tournament in his two years with the team. Gregg Jones has a 74.00 average for his six tournaments, while Saari, has a 75.36 average for the year. Saari is a veteran of two NCAA National tournaments and his score has counted in all eight rounds he has played.

Clemson Lineup for Us Collegiate 2000-01 Stats