Top Ranked Clemson Travels to Carpet Classic

Sept. 25, 2002

Number-one ranked Clemson will compete in its first tournament of the year on United States soil this weekend when it travels to the Carpet Classic in Dalton, GA. The tournament will be played 18 holes a day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at The Farm, par 72 layout that is 6906 in length.

Clemson opened its season with a victory in Japan at the Topy Cup September 3-5. It was the 49th career victory for head coach Larry Penley, who is in his 20th season leading the Clemson program. He has taken the Tigers to the NCAA national tournament each of his previous 19 seasons.

This year’s field will be another challenging group, as 14 of the top 20 teams in the nation will compete in the 18-team event, including Minnesota, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Texas, the top four teams from last year’s NCAA Tournament. Also competing in the national field will be Southern California, Oklahoma, Wake Forest, UNLV, Georgia and Florida.

Clemson senior and number-one ranked player in the country D.J. Trahan is the defending champion at the Carpet Classic. He fired a six-under par 210 last year to lead the Clemson team to a fourth-place finish. Gregg Jones (14th individually, 219) and Matt Hendrix (33rd, 226 individually) are two other players who competed for the Tigers last year who will be in he lineup again this weekend.

Jack Ferguson and Ben Duncan will be Clemson’s other two players in the lineup. Ferguson is coming off his top performance as a Clemson player, as he shot a 204 at the Topy Cup to finish a career high third place individually. Ben Duncan, a senior, shot a 214 in Japan to finish 13th individually and help the Tigers to the team title.

Trahan shot a 206 in Japan to finish fourth, while Hendrix had a career best 207 to finish a career best sixth place. Jones had a 217 total to finish 22nd, giving Clemson five players in the top 25 in the opening tournament.

Live stats of the event will be available all weekend on golfstat.com.