Tigers Past and Future To Compete at Bay Hill

March 15, 2006

Two former Clemson All-Americans and one future Tiger golfer will compete in the PGA Tour’s Bay Hill Invitational this weekend. The tour stop will be played at the Bay Hill Country Club in Orlando, FL.

Former Tigers Lucas Glover and Charles Warren are in the 120-player field, along with 2006 Clemson signee Sam Saunders. It will be the first tour event for Saunders, who will enter Clemson as a freshman in August of 2006.

Saunders is the grandson of Bay Hill Invitational Host Arnold Palmer. “Sam has displayed his talent through the past couple of years and this is an opportunity for a young man to get out and get some experience in the game that might not otherwise come his way,” said Palmer in an article in Golfweek. “So, we’ll see how he does with the big boys. I think that will be great.”

Saunders, who is just 18, recently won the men’s club championship at Bay Hill by 17 strokes. It was the second Bay Hill title for the Trinity Prep golfer from Orlando, FL. Saunders is ranked among the top 10 juniors in the US. He won the Florida State High School championship as a junior and was medallist at last year’s USGA Junior Amateur. He will join Kyle Stanley, another top 12 junior from the state of Washington in Clemson’s freshman class next year.

Saunders will tee off on Thursday at the first hole at Bay Hill at 9:05 AM. He is paired with Camilo Villegas and Henrik Bjornstad.

Glover is currently 15th on the PGA Tour money list and he has already recorded four top 10 finishes, tied for first on tour. He has won $826,874, a solid follow up from last year when he won over $2 million and ranked 30th on the PGA Tour money list. He was a three-time All-American at Clemson from 1999-01. Glover will tee off on the 10th tee at 12:21 on Thursday.

Warren is the still the only Clemson golfer to win the NCAA individual championship, a title he captured at Conway Farms outside of Chicago in 1997. He finished second at the event the following season. So far this year Warren is 80th on the PGA Tour Money list with $208,495. He had a seventh-place finish at the SONY open in his first. Warren will tee off two groups after Glover on the 10th hole. He has a 12:53 PM start on Thursday.