Golf Travels to Amelia National Intercollegiate

Teams challenging in this week's tournament include: Georgia Southern, North Florida, Arkansas State, Elon, Francis Marion, Furman, Jacksonville, Penn State, Texas A&M, Troy State, USC Upstate, VCU, Wofford, Winthrop and Xavier. North Florida enters this week ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Men's Division I Golf Standings and Texas A&M is currently ranked 13th.

Competing for the Eagles will be Scott Wolfes (St. Simons Island, Ga.), Charlie Martin (LaGrange, Ga.), Lewis Gruber (Tallahassee, Fla.), Blake Olson (Pensacola, Fla.), Zach Hartman (St. Simons Island, Ga.), Will Evans (McDonough, Ga.) and Matt Mierzejewski (Alpharetta, Ga.).

"Our expectations are to go down there and play well, get a good finish and have something to build on for the spring," said Head Coach Larry Mays. "We'll be facing another tough field this week. Every team there is going to be hungry for a strong finish to their fall season so we will have to come ready to play."

It has been an up and down fall campaign for the Eagles. Georgia Southern placed tenth at the SpringHill Suites Intercollegiate Sept. 12-13, where Wolfes and Martin both posted 1-under par 215s to tie for 12th place individually in their first collegiate tournament as an Eagle.

Georgia Southern was the only team in the field to score three consecutive rounds of par or better at the Mason Rudolph Championships Sept. 23-25. The Eagles shot 4-under par (848) to place third, four strokes behind tournament winner Middlae Tennessee State. Gruber shot 4-under par 209 (70-71-68) to place fifth among individuals while Wolfes finished one stroke back and tied for sixth (69-71-70). The Eagles' performance placed them ahead of teams fielded by Oklahoma, Memphis, Vanderbilt and South Carolina.

Following an eleventh place finish at the Rod Myers Invitational in Durham, N.C., Oct. 1-2,  the Eagles bounced back for a fifth place finish at the inaugural Auto Trader Collegiate Classic Oct. 17-18. Gruber was the high finisher for the Eagles, carding a 1-under par 215 to tie for seventh place. Martin shot 5-over par 221 (74-69-78) to tie for 19th place.

"Driving the ball straight is going to be crucial to posting low scores this week," Mays said. "There are a lot of hazards off the tee so players will really need to hit their drivers well. The greens are big at Amelia, but our approach shots will need to be solid to avoid putting too much stress on our putters. The wind can also come into play there, so players will need to adjust for that to be successful this week."

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Category: Golf

Published on Sunday, 06 November 2011 10:50