Clemson Opens Spring Season at Jacksonville Invitational

Feb. 5, 2010

Clemson, SC-Larry Penley’s Clemson golf team will open the spring portion of its schedule on Monday, Feb. 8 at the Jacksonville Invitational. The 16-team event will be played at The TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra, FL, the same course that is the site of the PGA tour’s Players Championship in May. The course features the famous par three 17th hole.

The tournament will be played over two days, 36 holes on Monday, Feb. 8 and 18 holes on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

Penley’s five player lineup will be composed of two seniors and three freshmen. Seniors Ben Martin and Luke Hopkins will lead the Tigers in the first event. Martin was a finalist at the 2009 United States Amateur last August and is a two-time first-team All-ACC selection. He will play in the Masters later this spring as a result of his second place finish at the US Amateur. Martin is currently ranked as the #15 amateur among United States players.

Hopkins was Clemson’s top golfer this past fall in terms of stroke average. The native of Greer, who is a past South Carolina Amateur Champion, had a 73.88 stroke average in three tournaments in the fall. He was Clemson’s top golfer at the Brickyard Invitational where Clemson finished second as a team, and at Isleworth, where he finished 13th.

Corbin Mills, Crawford Reeves and Brewer Bradshaw will all be in the Clemson lineup as freshmen. Mills played in two tournaments in the fall and had a 76.00 stroke average. He was Clemson’s second best golfer at Isleworth with a 229 score and that performance earned him a spot in the lineup in Jacksonville. Reeves played in all three events in the fall and had a 76.88 average. He was third among Clemson golfers at The Brickyard and his second round 70 helped the Tigers to that runner up finish.

Bradshaw is perhaps the most intriguing player in the Clemson lineup. This will be his first career college event after red-shirting last year. The son of former South Carolina quarterback Bill Bradshaw, Brewer had a solid summer that included a top 16 finish at the South Carolina Match Play.

Bradshaw earned a spot in the Clemson lineup by winning the team qualifying tournament for the Jacksonville Invitational. In one of the rounds, he shot a 68 in bad weather conditions at The Cliffs at Keowee Springs in Six Miles, SC, last week, five shots better than any other Tiger. His round included a hole-in-one on the 205-yard ninth hole.

The Jacksonville Invitational is one of two February tournaments for the Tigers. Clemson will compete in the Westin Rio Mar Classic in Puerto Rico Feb. 21-23.