Nov. 17, 2012
Tournament Results | Official Tournament Site
Follow Georgia Tech Golf on Twitter – @GT_GOLF | Follow Anders Albertson on Twitter – @AndersAlbertson
THE FLATS – All-American Anders Albertson joins two dozen of the nation’s top collegiate golfers in the Western Refining All-American Golf Classic Monday and Tuesday at the El Paso Country Club in El Paso, Texas.
The field consists of last year’s Division I All-Americans (with a limit of two per team), as well as the U.S. Amateur champion, Chattanooga’s Steven Fox, and the NCAA Division II player of the year, Nova Southeastern’s Ben Taylor. Alabama’s Cory Whitsett, the defending champion, also is in the field.
The rest of the field includes Anton Arboleda, UCLA; Zac Blair, BYU; Dominic Bozzelli, Auburn; Sebastian Cappelen, Arkansas; John Catlin, New Mexico; Corey Conners, Kent State; Pedro Figueiredo, UCLA; Brandon Hagy, California; Max Homa, California; Jeffrey Kang, USC; Will Kropp, Oklahoma; Keith Mitchell, Georgia; Cameron Peck, Texas A&M; Kevin Penner, UNLV; Thomas Pieters, Illinois; Patrick Rodgers, Stanford; Julian Suri, Duke; Justin Thomas, Alabama; and Joseph Winslow, Iowa.
Albertson, a sophomore from Woodstock, Ga., earned honorable mention All-American honors last year and became the sixth Georgia Tech freshman to make the All-Atlantic Coast conference team. He finished in the top-10 of five events, including a fourth-place finish in the ACC Championship, and was ranked No. 31 nationally in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index at the end of the spring.
Albertson finished this fall ranked No. 105 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index, with two top-20 finishes in four events.
Tech graduate James White played in the tournament last year as a senior, and the Yellow Jackets have had a player in the field virtually every year. Three Tech golfers have captured the title in the history of the event – David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999) and Nicholas Thompson (2004).
One of the nation’s oldest collegiate golf tournaments, many Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic competitors have gone on to pursue successful careers in the Professional Golfers’ Association of America and on the PGA Tour. Other past champions include Webb Simpson (2007), Ricky Barnes (2000), Notah Begay (1994), Davis Love III (1984), Chris Nallen (2003), Jerry Pate (1974) and Tiger Woods (1995).
Alumni of the Golf Classic have gone on to earn more than $1.4 billion and win 571 events on the PGA Tour. In all, 144 colleges and universities have participated in the tournament, raising almost $700,000 in scholarship money for the participating institutions. Each university represented by the Western Refining College All-Americans will receive a $1,000 scholarship.
