Oct. 24, 2008
ATLANTA – Looking to finish its fall schedule on a high note, Georgia Tech’s golf team heads south to the Orlando area for the fourth annual Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational beginning Sunday.
The 54-hole event is played at Isleworth Golf and Country Club (par 72, 7,544 yards), home to several PGA Tour golfers, including Tiger Woods. Tech has played in every Isleworth tournament, posting a pair of third-place finishes and 12th-place showing (last fall).
Bruce Heppler’s team, ranked 23rd in the nation in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, comes into its last fall event with some momentum, having finished second in the Brickyard Collegiate two weeks ago after leading each of the first two rounds.
Cameron Tringale took home medalist honors with a 1-over-par score of 211, his third career victory for the three-time All-American. The senior from Laguna Niguel, Calif., is enjoying his best fall season, averaging 71.50 over nine rounds with four rounds in the 60s and three top-20 finishes (two in the top 10).
“He has a chance to finish the fall on a high note coming off a win and carry that momentum down to Isleworth,” said Heppler. “Other years, he’s shown up tired from a long summer of golf, but this fall he’s come back with a lot more energy.”
Tringale, Chesson Hadley and John-Tyler Griffin finished in the top three of Tech’s qualifying tournament for this event and are joined by David Dragoo and Minghao Wang.
Hadley, a junior from Raleigh, N.C., and a two-time All-American, has been inconsistent in the fall, missing out on the Carpet Capital Collegiate, tying for 17th at the PING/Golfweek Preview Invitational, then tying for 69th at the Brickyard. Griffin, a sophomore from Wilson, N.C., continues to play well in team qualifying events and tied for third at the Brickyard (74.00 stroke average this fall).
Dragoo, a senior from Scottsdale, Ariz., is making his seventh consecutive start and has Tech’s second-best stroke average at 73.00 over nine rounds. He tied for seventh at the Carpet Capital and 17th at the Brickyard. Wang, a true freshman from Reunion, Fla., gets his first shot as a counting member of Tech’s team after tying for 43rd as an individual at the Brickyard, closing with rounds of 73-72.
The 18-team field at Isleworth includes top-ranked Oklahoma State, No. 3 Illinois, No. 6 Southern California, No. 7 Georgia (the defending champion), No. 9 South Carolina, No. 10 Alabama. Texas, Stanford, Clemson, Louisiana State and Indiana also are in the top 25, while Arizona, UCLA, Charlotte, Central Florida, Kentucky and Texas Tech round out the field.
“This tournament has a great field,” said Heppler. “There are teams with a great deal of regional representation, from the West Coast and the middle of the country. Hopefully the steps we made last week, we can continue those against an NCAA Championship type of field.”
