Senior Jonas Enander Hedin leads the 49ers with a 70.7 stroke average, this season. |
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Nationally-Ranked 49er Men's Golf Team Opens Elite Stretch
Live Scoring, Southern Highlands Championship, Mar. 7-9
March 4, 2008
Charlotte, N.C. - The Charlotte 49ers nationally-ranked golf program plays its next two events against the bulk of the nation's top-ranked golf programs. This week, the 49ers travel to UNLV for the Southern Highlands Golf Championship, at the home of a PGA Tour stop, Southern Highlands Golf Course, Mar. 7-9. That event includes six of the nation's consensus top eight ranked teams. After that, Charlotte will participate in the United States Collegiate Championship, at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Ga., Mar. 24-26. That event includes each of the nation's consensus top eight ranked teams and 10 of Golfweek's top 11 squads.
"This next two tournament stretch for us is proof postive the program is going in the right direction," said head coach Jamie Green. "There are 280 schools who would love to be going to these. These are the elite of the elite in terms of field strength and you can't get invited to events like this unless your performance the previous year was nothing less than outstanding. Our tournament schedule is getting stronger and stronger and every player we bring in wants to play in the best tournaments against the best competition and you earn that opportunity by playing well."
Charlotte is currently ranked 2nd in the GCAA/GolfWorld Coaches' Poll, 3rd in Golfweek and 4th by Golfstat. Georgia, ranked #1 in the nation by GolfWorld and Golfweek will be in both tournaments. Consensus top eight schools Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, UCLA and Southern Cal will be at both also, while Alabama, rated #1 by Golfstat and #2 by Golfweek, and Stanford (#8 in Golfweek; # 6 Golfworld) will join each of the above schools at the US Collegiate Championships.
The 49ers (67-4-1), have won four of the five stroke-play events in which they have competed. Three 49ers currently boast an under-par stroke average: Senior Jonas Enander Hedin (Taby, Sweden): 70.7; junior Stefan Wiedergruen (Waiblingen, Germany): 70.9 and sophomore Corey Nagy (Charlotte, N.C.): 71.6.
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"Any time you have an opportunity to play on a course that PGA Tour plays, it's exciting," added Green of the Southern Highlands Championship. "Our guys know what a special opportunity it is. The level of excitement and level of appreciation every player in the tournament will have just setting foot out there. What I'm looking forward to is that balanced play and depth that we had last fall. I wouldn't be surprised to see everyone playing well again and different guys leading us throughout the spring. That's what I'm looking forward to watching again, all the guys being competitive with each other."
The 49ers are led by head coach Jamie Green, a two-time A-10 Coach of the Year, and 2007 Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) all-Americans Andrew DiBitetto (Rochester, N.Y.) and Nagy. DiBitetto, a senior, was the 2007 A-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year while sophomore Nagy was one of five players named to the GCAA Freshman all-America team. Senior Enander Hedin led the 49ers with a 71.8 stroke average, last year - the second lowest recorded in school history. Junior Wiedergruen was named the Golf World Mid-Year Player of the Year for his performance this past fall and senior Trevor Murphy (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) was the 49ers top finisher at the spring's season-opening event, placing ninth overall at the John Hayt Invitational in February.
Charlotte posted a third-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Championships and has earned three straight berths in the NCAA Regionals, advancing to the 30-team National Finals in each of the last two years. The 49ers have won back-to-back Atlantic 10 Championships and are preseason favorites to cop a third straight title. This fall, the 49ers enjoyed a stint as the consensus #1 team in the country -- a first for any 49ers' athletic program.
Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship
Mar. 7-9 @ Southern Highlands G.C., Las Vegas, Nev. (hosted by UNLV)
15-team Field includes (rankings by Golfweek): #1 Georgia, #3 Charlotte, #4 Oklahoma State, #5 UCLA, #6 Georgia Tech, #7 Southern Cal and #10 Florida. Also, Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Hawaii, Minnesote, Texas, Texas A&M and UNLV.
United States Collegiate Championship
Mar. 24-26 @ Golf Club of Georgia, Alpharetta, Ga. (hosted by Georgia Tech)
15-team Field includes (rankings by Golfweek): #1 Georgia, #2 Alabama, #3 Charlotte, #4 Oklahoma State, #5 UCLA, #6 Georgia Tech, #7 Southern Cal, #8 Stanford, #10 Florida and #11 Florida State. Also, Coastal Carolina, Texas A&M, Texas, Georgia State, Easst Tennessee State and Brigham Young.
