CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson heads across the country this week to compete in The Goodwin at the home course of the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto, California. The tournament, which began in 1968 under a different title, is named after Wally Goodwin, the coach of the Stanford golf program from 1987-2000. Among the players he recruited to Stanford was Tiger Woods.
The list of winners of this tournament includes PGA Hall of Famer Tom Watson (1971 as Stanford golfer) and Corey Pavin, US Open Champion who won The Goodwin in 1982 as a player at UCLA.
This year’s 54-hole tournament will be played, Thursday to Saturday, March 27-29. With a field of 30 teams, it is the largest Division I college tournament in the nation during the regular season, and 156 players will be in the field. The highest ranked team in the field this year is Utah at #12 in the nation, and there are eight top 40 teams according to the Clippd rating system.
Clemson is coming off its first team victory of the year at the Palmetto Intercollegiate. The Tigers finished first out of 15 teams with a 563 team score. The tournament was reduced to two rounds due to weather. Three Tigers finished in the top 10, led by Lucas Augustsson (3rd), Thomas Higgins (5th) and Andrew Swanson (7th). All three will be in the Clemson lineup this week.
Augustsson will play the number-one position for Jordan Byrd’s team. He has a 72.80 stroke average so far this year, but is coming off consecutive top 15 finishes, 14th at Watersound and third at The Palmetto. He is four-under-par for his last five rounds combined.
Senior Kian Rose will be in the number-two position this weekend. The native of South Africa has a 72.00 stoke average for the year, second on the Clemson team. He has nine under-par rounds this year and 34 for his career. He has three rounds in the 60s this year and 15 for his career.
Andrew Swanson is Clemson’s top golfer in terms of stroke average at 71.90. He has a pair of top 10 finishes and leads the team in under-par rounds with 10, and rounds in the 60s with six. The senior will play in his 29th career tournament at Clemson and his final round on Saturday will be the 100th of his career. He has had 47 rounds at at par or better among his first 97 rounds at Clemson.
Junior Thomas Higgins is coming off his best tournament of the year, as he finished fifth at the Palmetto with an even-par score of 140 for the two rounds. The native of Ireland has a 74.29 stroke average so far this year for his 14 rounds. He has a 73.61 career stroke average and has 21 career rounds at par or better.
Freshman Rich Wills, who is third on the team in stroke average this year, will hold the number-five position for Clemson this weekend. He has four rounds in the 60s and nine rounds at par or better.
Freshman Colin Salema will play the tournament as an individual. Salema has been out with an injury since the fall. He started four tournaments in the fall and had a 73.08 staple average.
Live scoring will be available HERE.
