Men's Golf Travels to SoCon Tournament
4/16/2010 7:10:00 PM | Men's Golf
STATESBORO, Ga. – Postseason play at the Southern Conference Tournament has arrived for the Georgia Southern men’s golf team. The Country Club of South Carolina, a par 72, 7,062-yard layout, will host the three-day tournament April 18-20 for the fourth consecutive year.
The Eagles will take to the course looking for their second bid to an NCAA Regional in as many years with the champion receiving the automatic berth into the national tournament. The conference medalist will also qualify individually for NCAA postseason play should their institution not advance to regionals. GS finished in second-place last season, two strokes out of first-place Chattanooga.
In 2009, then-senior Drew Lethem captured the individual title firing a 6-under par 210 for the tournament. Lethem claimed his first collegiate career tournament title with the win.
Georgia Southern will look for its third crown having won the tournament in 2003 and 2006.
“We are coming off a solid finish in Augusta and we gained some confidence from that tournament. Hopefully we can carry what we learned from that tournament over to this weekend,” stated head coach Larry Mays. “We need take care of our job playing the golf course and stay focused. Both Chattanooga and Furman are very competitive teams and will be challenging for the title, so we need to stay focused and take care of our business. It should be a challenging tournament.”
The 54-hole event will feature 18 holes on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday beginning at 8 a.m. Three-hole live scoring will be conducted and available at www.golfstat.com, along with tee times for each round.
Making the trip for Georgia Southern will be seniors Ryan Zabroske (Alpharetta, Ga.), Matt Deal (Statesboro, Ga.) and Spence Fulford (Rocky Mount, N.C.), junior Joe Monte (Chantilly, Va.) and redshirt-freshman Florian Sander (Bregenz, Austria).
A familiar course to the Eagles, the team has taken back-to-back fall tournament titles at The Country Club of South Carolina in the SpringHill Suites Intercollegiate and Raines Development Intercollegiate. In addition, four of the five traveling Eagles have competed on the course in their collegiate career.
“I think it is both an advantage and disadvantage having experience on this course,” stated Mays. “I think it’s an advantage because we know we have players that compete well on the course, but it can also add a little extra pressure if they don’t get off to a good start.
“The key for us to do well will be to execute our game plan, stay patient and stay focused on each and every shot,” said Mays. “We have to play the front nine well and play the back nine smart. There are some birdies to be made on the back nine, but first you have to get through the three or four tough holes.”
The Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championship, in its 74th year, has been played every season since 1933, aside from a four-year hiatus during World War II, and the event boasts past champions such as Arnold Palmer (1948-49), Brad Faxon (1983) and Rhys Davies (2005), a winner on the European PGA Tour last month.
