Clemson Opens Golf Season at Topy Cup

Sept. 3, 2007

Clemson, SC — Clemson will open its 2007-08 golf schedule on Tuesday in Japan at the 2007 Topy Cup. The Tigers are one of four United States teams that will join seven Japanese college teams who will compete at Tanagura Country Club in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

Clemson, ranked ninth in the Golf World Coaches Association preseason poll, will be joined by number-one ranked and defending NCAA Champion Stanford, second ranked Alabama, and 17th ranked Duke in the 12-team field. The 54-hole tournament will begin Tuesday with 18 holes and continue on Wednesday and Thursday.

Kyle Stanley will not make the trip, as he will be playing for the United States in the Walker Cup matches in Ireland this coming weekend. Sophomore Sam Saunders also will sit out this first event.

Senior Tanner Ervin will be in the Clemson lineup. The native of Mount Pleasant, SC starts his final year with the program with a 74.64 career average for his team high 22 career tournaments. He finished last season strong with a seventh place finish at the ACC Tournament. David May (Auburn, NY) had a 74.15 stroke average last year and he will be joined in the junior class by Phillip Mollica, (Anderson, SC) the reigning North-South Amateur Champion.

Ben Martin, a first-team All-ACC selection as a freshman last year, had a 73.48 stroke average last year, the top returning average among Tigers who will be going to Japan. The native of Greenwood, SC also made the Academic All-ACC team last year. Luke Hopkins, who red-shirted last season, will return to action. Hopkins, from Greer, SC, had a terrific summer than included victories at the Palmetto Amateur and the South Carolina Amateur.

This will be Clemson’s fourth trip to the Topy Cup, the first since the fall of 2002. That year, Clemson finished first among the 15 teams with a 34-under-par score. The Tigers, led by D.J. Trahan, went on to win the National Championship in May of 2003. Clemson has finished first (2002), second (1987) and third (1996) in its three previous trips to the Topy Cup.