Clemson Opens Men’s Golf Season Friday

CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson men’s golf team will open the 2013-14 at a familiar site on Friday. The Tigers will compete in the Carpet Classic in Dalton, GA for the 25th time, the eighth time as the season opener. The 14-team event will be played at The Farm in Dalton, GA and will run from Friday, September 6 through Sunday, September 8.

The 14-team field includes SEC teams Auburn, LSU, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, and ACC teams Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Wake Forest. A top 10 Texas team is also in the field.

It will be the 31st season for he Tigers under Head Coach Larry Penley. “We are a young team that will have three sophomores and two freshmen in the lineup for this first event. But, three of the guys played in this tournament last year. It is a strong field as usual so we will get an idea of where we stand.”

Clemson finished fifth last year and has three consecutive top five finishes at the Farm. The Tigers won the event four times.

Leading the Tigers will be sophomore Stephen Behr, who led the Tigers in stroke average as a freshman last year with a 72.97 average. He was the first Tiger rookie in seven years to do that. One of his best tournaments last year was the Carpet Classic as he finished fourth individually with a 209 score after three consecutive under par round.

Miller Capps and Cody Proveaux each took 2,359 strokes in 32 rounds last year to tie for second on the team in stroke average at 73.72. Capps had two top 10s, while Proveaux led the team in birdies with 91. Capps had a strong summer with four top 10 finishes. Capps was Clemson’s top golfer during the qualifier for this event with a 23-under par score for six rounds.

Two freshmen from the same high school born just two days apart will begin their Clemson careers on Friday. Austin Langdale and Carson Young dominated high school golf in the upstate of South Carolina the last three years and are ready to take their game to the college level at Clemson. Both were leaders for the Pendleton High School team.

Langdale won the Azalea Amateur earlier this year and was a four-time runnerup in the AA State championship. Young won the South Carolina Amateur Championship this past summer and qualified for the US Amateur.

Billy Kennerly was suppose to be in the Clemson lineup for this tournament, but became ill Wednesday night and was not able to travel with the team. So Young was inserted into the lineup.

Senior Thomas Bradshaw, the captain of the Clemson team, will play in the tournament as an individual.

Summary Scores will be posted on golfstat.com on Friday evening and live scoring will be posted on Saturday and Sunday.