March 11, 2004
Greensboro, N.C. – Georgia Tech’s golf team, ranked No. 4 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, joins 11 other top 20 teams, including host and 10th-ranked Nevada-Las Vegas, for the Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship beginning Friday in Las Vegas.
The tournament, which is being played at Las Vegas’ luxurious Southern Highlands Golf Club (7,381 Yards/Par 72), begins Friday, March 12 and concludes on Sunday, March 14. The 54-hole event will carry a standard 4-of-5 scoring format, with 18 holes to be played each day. Tee times will begin at 11:00 a.m. EST each morning.
The field also includes No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 5 UCLA, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 13 Augusta State, No. 14 North Carolina, No. 15 Wake Forest, No. 18 New Mexico, No. 20 Arizona, No. 29 Washington, No. 51 North Carolina State, and No. 59 Auburn.
Tech finished 11th out of 15 teams in this event last year on the Southern Highlands Golf Club after winning the tournament twice previously. Nicholas Thompson shot 217 (+1) to tie for 24th, while Chan Wongluekiet carded a 226 to tie for 64th.
The Yellow Jackets’ quintet in Las Vegas will be juniors Nicholas Thompson and Chan Wongluekiet, sophomore Mike Barbosa, and freshmen Kevin Larsen and Roberto Castro.
Larsen (71.47), Thompson (71.53) and Castro (71.71) all have scoring averages for the year under 72. Thompson and Castro each have a pair of top-10 finishes to their credit, while Larsen has one. Wongluekiet has averaged 72.70 for the year and has Tech’s only top-10 individual finish this spring, a tie for fifth at the Waikoloa event in Hawaii. Barbosa has averaged 73.92 strokes and has one top-20 finish in four events.
This spring, Tech has won one event, the Taylor Made Waikoloa Intercollegiate, and finished in a tie for eighth in the other, the Puerto Rico Classic.
