April 6, 2006
ATLANTA – Making just its third appearance in a collegiate event in the Atlanta area since 2000, Georgia Tech’s fourth-ranked golf team hosts and headlines the inaugural United States Collegiate Championship, Monday and Tuesday at The Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Ga.
It will be the first collegiate competition ever staged at The Golf Club of Georgia, one of Tech’s “home courses,” and 13 of the nation’s top teams will compete over 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday. Tee times at the award-winning Lakeside Course begin each morning at 8 a.m., and admission is $20, which includes all three rounds.
Live scoring for the tournament is provided online at Golfstat.com, and Comcast Sports Southeast will be on hand to televise the event on a tape-delayed basis.
More information and directions to The Golf Club of Georgia.
Georgia Tech, ranked fourth in the nation in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, headlines the field which also includes defending national champion Georgia, as well Alabama, Brigham Young, Clemson, East Tennessee State, Florida, Florida State, Georgia State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Christian and Wake Forest.
Nine teams rank among the nation’s top 20 teams in the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin ratings, five among the top 10, and all 13 are ranked in the top 50. After this season, the participating teams other than Tech and Georgia will be selected through a system based on the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
Of the nation’s top 50 individuals, 20 of them are represented in the field, including Tech’s Roberto Castro (No. 9), Kevin Larsen (No. 10) and Cameron Tringale (No. 40), as well as all five Georgia players. Also in the field are East Tennessee State’s Rhys Davies (No. 5) and Matt Every of Florida (No. 7).
“To have a tournament of this magnitude at a facility we feel is the best in the country is very exciting,” said Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler, whose team has enjoyed a 10-year relationship with The Golf Club of Georgia. “Knowing and appreciating the commitment and enthusiasm the staff and the members hold toward the event, it makes us feel very comfortable that it will become a very special tournament.”
Since 1995, Tech has participated in just four collegiate competitions in the Atlanta metropolitan area, most recently in the 2004 Atlanta Intercollegiate at Eagles Landing in Stockbridge. Tech was the host school for the 2002 NCAA East Regional at Ansley Golf Club at Settindown Creek in Roswell and the 1997 ACC Championship at Whitewater Creek in Fayetteville, and defeated Stanford (which included Tiger Woods, Notah Begay III and Casey Martin) in a 1995 dual match at Druid Hills Golf Club.
Tech will be the host school for the 2007 NCAA East Regional, which also will be held at The Golf Club of Georgia.
Castro, a junior from Alpaharetta, Ga., Larsen, a junior from Santa Barbara, Calif., and Tringale, a freshman from Laguna Niguel, Calif., will compete for Tech along with senior Mike Barbosa of St. Petersburg, Fla., and freshman Taylor Hall of LaGrange, Ga. That group has eleven top-10 finishes among them this year, including five by Larsen, three by Tringale and two by Castro. Tringale won the UH-Hilo Intercollegiate in early February.
The tournament’s course conditions promise to be as first-class as the quality of its teams. Players will wear long pants and have caddies. The course will not be roped, allowing galleries an intimate opportunity to walk with the competitors, as is the case with the club’s annual Georgia Cup match (March 29) between the United States and British Amateur champions.
Rules officials will accompany each group of The United States Collegiate Championship as the players compete for 36 holes on Monday, April 10, then a final 18 holes on Tuesday, April 11.
The Golf Club of Georgia, a 36-hole Arthur Hills facility north of Atlanta named “Best New Private Course in America” in 1991 by Golf Digest, also has been announced as the host site for the 2007 NCAA East Regional Championship.
Callaway Golf and Siemens are presenting sponsors for the 2006 United States Collegiate Championship. Cadillac is the official vehicle.
