Wake Forest Athletics
Men's Golf Opens 2011 Spring Season At JU Invitational
1/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Wake Forest men's golf team will begin the 2011 portion of its schedule next week at the JU Invitational, which is being played at the prestigious TPC of Sawgrass Stadium Course. The first two rounds are scheduled for Monday, Jan. 31, with the final round set for Tuesday, Feb. 1.
The Demon Deacons are coming off a very solid fall campaign that saw them record four top-4 finishes in five events. Wake started the season unranked but has ascended to No. 21 in the latest Golfstat poll. The strong start gives head coach Jerry Haas every reason to be optimistic about the spring season.
"I haven't been this excited about a season in awhile," said Haas. "I think we turned a corner with our play last fall. The guys at the top are playing well but it's the depth that we have at the bottom that has really helped us. I think that's going to take some of the pressure off of Lee (Bedford) and Evan (Beck). On paper, we don't look like we have a lot of experience but these guys have played some big time golf and have a lot of confidence in their games right now."
Playing well in the fall could also serve as a motivating point for Haas and the team this spring.
"This is a very hard working group," Haas said. "It's not uncommon for them to come back to campus after a practice round and spend hours at the learning center. These guys want to get better and they want to win. I think that's going to be big for us this spring in that the guys are confident and they're going to expect to win."
Wake opens the spring at a tournament it nearly won in its first appearance last year. Behind medalist Brendan Gielow, the Deacs made a run at 36-hole leader East Tennessee State but wound-up finishing second. Gielow birdied two of his final three holes to claim medalist honors while Lee Bedford fired a final round 2-under 70 to finish tied for 11th. Charlie Harrison also played well in the final round, posting a 1-over 73 en route to finishing tied for 15th.
This year's field is solid once again, with six of the 15 teams in the top-50 of the latest Golfstat rankings. Defending champion ETSU is back along with Florida, the No. 1 team in the country during the fall.
Bedford and Beck had outstanding falls and look poised to roll that success into the spring. Bedford won the season-opening Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic and capped the fall with an invitation to the Western Refining All-American Classic. He had a stroke average of 71.0 in six events this fall.
Beck had three top-3 finishes in five events and became just the fifth Demon Deacon since 1984 to have a streak of at least seven-straight rounds at par or better. He tops the ACC through the fall with a 70.87 scoring average and he is ranked No. 18 in the latest Golfstat individual rankings.
Sophomore Charlie Harrison capped the fall at the US Collegiate Championship with his best finish of the season. He carded a final round 1-under 71 to finish tied for 17th. Harrison played in all five events and finished with a 73.4 scoring average, which is over three strokes lower than his average as a freshman last year.
Freshmen John Varol and Beau Cutts round out the Demon Deacons' lineup next week. Like Harrison, Varol finished with a bang at the US Collegiate Championship, firing a season-low 3-under 69 in the final round. He posted a scoring average of 74.9 in four events while Cutts averaged 75.2 in two events.
Action gets underway at the TPC of Sawgrass on Monday morning with a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m. The final round is scheduled to start with tee times off of both the first and tenth tees at 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Golfstat.com will have live scoring of all three rounds.
Players Mentioned
