Clemson To Compete in United States Collegiate Championship

April 6, 2006

The Clemson Tiger golf team competes next week’s United States Collegiate Championship in Alpharetta, Georgia. The 54-hole event will be held Monday and Tuesday, April 10-11 at the Golf Club of Georgia.

The Tigers had their best finish last week in the Augusta State Invitational and look to take some of that momentum into Alpharetta and finish on top but will have to do so against one of the best fields they will play all year. Ten of the top-24 teams in the country will compete in the 13-team field.

In the field are six top 10 teams, including Georgia (1), Florida (3), Georgia Tech (4), Brigham Young (7), Georgia State (9), and ETSU (10). Tennessee (14), Clemson (15), Wake Forest (22), Alabama (24), TCU, Texas, and Florida State finish out the field.

The Tigers will take two seniors, a sophomore, and two freshmen this week to compete in the tournament.

Brian Duncan is the first of the two seniors playing this week for Coach Penley’s Tigers. Brian has the lowest stroke average on the team for the year with a 73.29. Of the seven tournaments he has played he has finished in the top-20 in all but one with two of his finishes in the top-10. He is currently ranked 27th according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.

Stephen Poole is the other senior competing this week for the Tigers. Poole is second on the team in stroke average with a 73.75 and has had three top-13 finishes this season. He is currently ranked 67th in the country individually according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.

Sophomore Tanner Ervin is in the line-up for the third straight tournament. Ervin has finished in the top-20 for the past two weeks and looks to continue his fine play this week at the Golf Club of Georgia. The sophomore from Mount Pleasant ranks third on the team in stroke average with a 74.00.

Vince Hatfield is making his fourth career start for Clemson this week. The first-year freshman has a 74.44 stroke average after three events. He placed 7th in last week’s Augusta State Invitational to help lead Clemson to their second top-5 finish of the season.

David May is another freshman stating this week. David has played in seven events this season and has a 75.14 stroke average. He finished second at the Carpet Classic in the fall, the best individual finish by a Clemson player all year.