Tigers Return To Course Friday

Sept. 27, 2001

Clemson, SC – Larry Penley’s Clemson golf team returns to action after three weeks off at the Ping/Golfweek Preview in Columbus, OH. The event features a 15-team field, including 10 of the top 11 teams in the nation, and will be played at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course, the site of this year’s NCAA Championships.

The course has been the site of the NCAA Championships nine previous years, including as recently as 1995. The course will be a par 71 and play to 7,236 yards, one of the longest courses on Clemson’s schedule this year. The event will be 54 holes, with 18 played per day, Friday through Sunday.

The field includes preseason #1 ranked and defending National Champion Florida, second ranked Arizona, fourth ranked Oklahoma State, fifth ranked Georgia Tech and sixth ranked Texas. Wake Forest (7), Oklahoma (8), Arizona State (9), Virginia Tech (10) and the Tigers (11th) are the other preseason top 15 teams in the field. Ohio State, East Tennessee State, Pacific and Augusta State are also in the field by virtue of their top 10 finishes at the NCAAs last year.

Clemson will bring a young team to the 13th annual event. D.J. Trahan, a two-time honorable mention All-American and Walker Cup team member, will lead the Tigers. The junior finished seventh at last year’s NCAA championships. He opened his season with a 216, even par score at The Ridges. Sophomore Gregg Jones, a starter for Clemson’s #2 ranked team a year ago, joins Trahan at the top of Clemson’s lineup.

Matt Hendrix, a red-shirt sophomore, and freshmen Jack Ferguson and Martin Catalioto round out the Clemson lineup. Ferguson, a red-shirt freshman from Seneca, SC, was Clemson’s top performer in the season opening tournament with a 13th place finish at The Ridges September 8-9. He had a 215 score, one-under-par for his first college event.

Catalioto will be making his first appearance for the Tigers. The first-year freshman from New Jersey, who now lives in Hilton Head, was a two-time player of the year in New Jersey and was named to many high school All-American teams.

This will be Clemson’s 11th straight year of competition in the Ping/Golfweek Preview. The Tigers won the event in the fall of 1990, their first appearance. The Tigers have finished second and third the last two years, respectively. Clemson has finished in the top three of the event five times in their 10 previous appearances.