Clemson to Compete in 60th ACC Men’s Golf Tournament

CLEMSON, SC – Freshmen Stephen Behr, Miller Capps and Cody Proveaux all will be in the Clemson lineup when the Tigers begin play in the 60^th ACC Golf Tournament at the Old North State Club in New London, NC on Friday.  Clemson will be paired with Virginia Tech and Wake Forest and tee off on the first tee between 10:10 AM and 10:50 AM.

The 54-hole event will be contested over three days on the par 72 Old North State Club layout.

This will be the first time since 1995 and just the second time in history that Clemson has had three freshmen in its lineup for the ACC Tournament.  That year, Charles Warren, Joey Maxon and Chad Starliper were all freshmen in Larry Penley‘s starting lineup.  Clemson finished fourth out of nine teams at that tournament.

Clemson has won the ACC golf championship nine times in its history, one time under Bobby Robinson (1982) and eight times under current coach Larry Penley.  The last time Clemson won the tournament was 2004.

Behr, Capps and Proveaux have been Clemson’s top three players this year in terms of stroke average.  This could be the first time in history freshmen have held the top three stroke averages in school history over the course of a season.

Behr has a 72.78 stroke average for the year, best on the team.  The native of Florence, SC has three top-10 finishes and a team-best five under-par rounds for the year.  Behr has played in all but one of the tournaments so far this year.  He finished in the top 10 of each of his first two events, fourth place at the Carpet Classic and seventh at the Fighting Illini Classic back in September.  He joined Michael Hoey as the only Clemson golfers in history to finish in the top 10 of each of his first two events.

Capps has been among Clemson’s top golfers this spring with four top 20 finishes, including a third place at the Wolfpack Spring Open this past weekend.  The native of Denver, NC with a 73.69 stroke average has tied Behr for the team lead in top 10 finishes.  He finished third at the Jerry Pate in the fall.

Proveaux has been among the more consistent freshmen in the ACC this year.  He leads the team in rounds at 75 or under with 20 out of 26 and has a 74.04 stroke average, third best on the team.  The 2012 South Carolina Amateur Champion has six rounds at par or better.  He had a seventh-place finish against a national field at the US Collegiate in the fall.

Senior Crawford Reeves will lend experience to the Clemson lineup as this will be his fourth consecutive ACC Tournament, all at the Old North State Club.  Reeves has a 73.00 stroke average for his nine career rounds there, including a final round 67 in 2011 when he finished 11^th in the tournament, and a second round 66 last year, the third best score for a Clemson golfer at the Old North State Club.

This year Reeves has a 74.35 stroke average and has finished in the top 25 in four of his last five events.  That includes a three-under-par 213 at the Puerto Rico Classic when he shot par or better in all three rounds.

Billy Kennerly, a sophomore from Alpharetta, GA is the second Clemson golfer with ACC Tournament experience.  He finished 21^st last year with a 217 total, one over par.  Kennerly has a 75.47 stroke average so far this year.