Five Tigers make Cut at Booz Allen PGA Tour Event

June 24, 2006

Clemson, SC-Five former Clemson golfers made the 36-hole cut at the Booz Allen Classic at TPC at Avenel in Potomac, MD. The list of Tigers who will be playing on the weekend includes Brent Delahoussaye, who is playing in his first career PGA Tour event.

Also making the cut were former Clemson All-Americans Jonathan Byrd, John Engler, Danny Ellis and Charles Warren. It marks the first time that five different former Clemson golfers made the cut in the same PGA Tour event.

Clemson actually had six players in the field, also a first in school history. D.J. Trahan failed to make the cut. The five players who made the cut combined to shoot 21 under-par on Friday.

Delahoussaye had a strong round on Friday with a three-under par 68. He stands at two-under par after 36 holes. He had four birdies and a bogey on Friday and has a 93 percent accuracy mark in fairway hitting percentage for the tournament, fifth best in the field.

Delahoussaye is the first former Clemson golfer to make the cut in his first PGA Tour event since Lucas Glover accomplished the feat at the 2001 Texas Open. Delahoussaye has played in tournaments on the NGA Hooters Tour, the Tar Heel Tour and the Nationwide Tour this year. The native of Greenville is 12th on the money list on the NGA Hooters Tour and is 10th on the Tar Heel Tour. He won $24,000 when he captured medallist honors at the Hooters Tour event at Royal Lakes in April. The following week he finished second at the Old Sycamore Open on the Tar Heel Tour.

There were many other significant story lines for former Clemson golfers on Friday. Engler, a three-time All-American under Larry Penley from 1997-01, had a career best round of six-under-par 65 on Friday to move from 84th place into the top 25.

Engler stands at five-under par 137 for the tournament. His round included six birdies, two bogeys and an eagle. It was his best round on the PGA Tour by four shots. The native of Augusta, GA who overcame a severe foot injury after suffering an automobile accident in 2004, had missed the cut in each of his last eight events.

Jonathan Byrd is actually the top Tiger in the tournament after 36 holes with a six-under par score of 136. Byrd shot a five-under par 66 on Friday with five birdies and 13 pars. It is Byrd’s first round on the PGA Tour since April 13 when he had to withdraw from the Heritage in Hilton Head, SC after suffering a rib injury while shooting a 67.

Charles Warren also had a 68 on Friday and stands at three-under-par 139 after two rounds. The native of Columbia has 10 birdies in the first two rounds. Danny Ellis shot a 32 on his final nine holes to shoot 67 for the day and made the cut by two shots.