Aug. 8, 2012
PGA Championship site | U.S. Amateur site
THE FLATS – A big two weeks for the Georgia Tech golf program begins Thursday, with four former Yellow Jackets in the field for the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, S.C., and three current Tech players competing in the U.S. Amateur, which begins Monday in Denver, Colo.
Stewart Cink, the 2009 Open Champion, Matt Kuchar, the 2012 Players Champion, Bryce Molder, the 2011 Frys.com Open champion, and Cameron Tringale, in his third year on the PGA Tour, are all in the PGA Championship field that begins play Thursday morning. The 2012 season’s final major is being played at the Ocean Course, site of the 1999 Ryder Cup.
A four-time winner on the PGA Tour, Kuchar has eight top-10 finishes this year, including his win at the Players, and has collected more than $3.6 million in earnings. He currently ranks sixth in FedEx Cup points and seventh in the Ryder Cup standings, which close after this week. He tied for third at the Masters, tied for 27th at the U.S. Open and tied for ninth at the British Open this year.
Tringale currently ranks 55th on the PGA Tour with more than $1.2 million in earnings, while Matteson (89th) and Molder (94th) are in solid shape to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Matteson tied for 39th at the British Open this year, is playing in his fourth major and his second PGA Championship. Molder is playing in his sixth major and his second PGA Championship. Cink, who has six PGA Tour victories, has played in all three majors this year but made the cut only in the Masters. The PGA Championship will be his 63rd major.
TNT will televise action from the first and second rounds at Kiawah Thursday and Friday, as well as third- and fourth-round action early in the day Saturday and Sunday. CBS will broadcast the third and fourth rounds from 2-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Beginning Monday, Georgia Tech’s Richy Werenski, Ollie Schniederjans and Shun Yat Hak will begin competition in the U.S. Amateur Championship being contested at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, Colo.
Schniederjans, a sophomore from Powder Springs, Ga., gained entry by winning the sectional qualifying event held last month at the Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, and Werenski, a junior from South Hadley, Mass., qualified by finishing second in the sectional event held in his hometown. Hak, an incoming freshman from Lake Mary, Fla., who was the nation’s top junior player coming out of high school last year, is exempt into the field due to his position among the top 50 in the World Amateur rankings.
More than 300 qualifiers will compete in 36 holes of stroke play scheduled for Aug. 13 and 14, after which the field will be cut to the low 64 scorers. Six rounds of match play begin on Aug. 15 and the championship concludes with a scheduled 36-hole final match on Aug. 19. The Golf Channel will provide televised coverage of matches Wednesday through Saturday of next week, with NBC taking over for the semifinal and championship matches Aug. 18-19.
