Men's Golf Closes Fall At The US Collegiate Championship
10/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Tournament Website | Live Scoring
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The No. 24 Wake Forest men's golf team will close out the fall portion of its schedule this week at The US Collegiate Championship at the Golf Club of Georgia.
Hosted by Atlantic Coast Conference champion Georgia Tech and often called "the Masters of college golf," the USCC begins Sunday, Oct. 24, with 15 of the nation's finest college teams playing the first of three tournament rounds, beginning at 9 a.m.
Defending champion Clemson, which also won in 2006, joins the Yellow Jackets in a USCC field that includes 2009 NCAA Champion Texas A&M, 2008 USCC Champion Southern California, UCLA, Washington, California, South Carolina, Florida State, Virginia, Duke, East Tennessee State, Kent State and Georgia State.
The Demon Deacons played in the inaugural event in 2006 and then again in 2007, finishing third both years. Individually, All-American Webb Simpson finished runner-up in 2006 and then was the only player to break par in 2007, winning the event by three shots. That win was the first of Simpson's career.
The year, the Deacons' lineup will include junior Lee Bedford, sophomores Evan Beck and Charlie Harrison, along with freshman John Varol and senior Justin Bryant.
Bedford and Beck are both looking to become the first Demon Deacons to play all five fall events under-par. So far, Bedford has four top-10s and leads the team with a 70.2 scoring average. Beck had a streak of seven-straight rounds this fall at par or better and is the only player on the team to have all 12 rounds count towards the team score.
The USCC was played in the spring the first four years and moved to the fall predominantly for better weather, but also to separate it from the club's other major event, The Georgia Cup. The Georgia Cup is an annual charity match the week before the Masters that features the reigning United States and British Amateur Champions.
The USCC typically brings future stars of the PGA Tour to The Golf Club of Georgia. Among the past participants are Rickie Fowler, who went from the 2009 USCC with Oklahoma State to the 2010 U.S. Ryder Cup team; PGA Tour star Webb Simpson (Wake Forest) along with Nationwide Tour standouts Jamie Lovemark (Southern Cal), Chris Kirk (Georgia), Kyle Reifers (Wake Forest) and Roberto Castro (Georgia Tech); and Rhys Davies (East Tennessee State) and Joel Sjoholm (Georgia State), who have earned victories playing as professionals in Europe.
Unlike any other tournament in college golf, the USCC features caddies for every player and an intimate fan opportunity to walk behind the players in the fairway, with no gallery ropes, in the style of the U.S. Amateur and Walker Cup. Also, the tournament features Corporate Skyboxes around the 18th green, a first for college golf.
The USCC is televised by Comcast Sports Southeast, which serves more than 6 million households in 13 states. Golfstat.com will provide live scoring for all three rounds.
The Demon Deacons will begin the tournament in the opening wave at 9 am Sunday morning. Wake is paired with Georgia State and East Tennessee State. The extended weather forecast calls for temperatures in the mid to upper-70s with only a slight chance of rain on Monday and Tuesday.
Players Mentioned
