Buckeyes Compete at Memphis Intercollegiate in First of Two Tennessee Tournaments – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Ohio State golfers look to maintain momentum after Top 5 finish in New Mexico
COLUMBUS, Ohio After a fifth-place finish at the season-opening William H. Tucker Invitational, the Ohio State men’s golf team continues its fall campaign at the Memphis Intercollegiate, Oct. 6-7 in Memphis, Tenn. The 54-hole event, hosted by the University of Memphis, will be played at the par 72, 7,259-yard Colonial Country Club.
The Memphis Intercollegiate begins with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. (CT) Monday with teams playing 36 holes. The 16-team field will tee off for the final 18 holes Tuesday once again at 8 a.m.
KEEPING TRACK
Live scoring for the entire event is available at www.golfstat.com, with links to the site on the Ohio State men’s golf schedule at www.OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
TOURNAMENT BASICS
Name: Memphis Intercollegiate
Course: Colonial Country Club, South Course (Par 72, 7,259 yards)
Field: 16 teams – Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Louisville, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Maryland, Memphis (host), Mississippi, Mississippi State, Ohio State, Rice, South Alabama, South Florida, Southern Miss, Wisconsin, Xavier
Schedule:
Monday, Oct. 6: 36 holes, tee off at 8 a.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 7: 18 holes, tee off at 8 a.m.
THE BUCKEYE LINEUP
Ohio State will have a mix of young and old when they tee it up in Memphis. Representing the Buckeyes will be seniors Vaughn Snyder and Dan Rush, junior Brad Wright, and sophomores Bo Hoag and Tanner Murphy. It will be the first tournament of the season for both Rush and Murphy.
LAST TIME OUT
Three Buckeyes placed in the Top 20, led by sophomore Bo Hoag in fourth, as the team finished fifth with a score of 7-over 871 at the 54th annual William H. Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M. It was the second-consecutive year Ohio State has opened the season with a Top 5 finish at the tournament.
Hoag battled for the top of the leaderboard throughout the final round and finished with a total of 213, just two strokes back from the co-medalists. Brad Wright tied for 14th in his first tournament as a Buckeye with a score of 219. Vaughn Snyder tied for 20th at 221, followed by Michael Kinkopf one stroke back with a total of 222 to tie for 24th. Rounding out the Buckeyes was Patrick Simard in a tie for 29th with a total of 224.
THE COURSE AHEAD
Colonial Country Club was founded in 1913 and is one of the premier courses in the state of Tennessee. The par 72, 7,259-yard South Course was home to the PGA Tour’s Memphis Open, now known as the Stanford St. Jude Championship, from 1958-88. Past winners of the tournament include Ohio State legend Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and Raymond Floyd. During the tournament’s Pro-Am in 1977, President Gerald Ford made a hole-in-one. Two days later, during the tournament, Al Geiberger shot a PGA Tour record 59.
ROCKY TOP
The Buckeyes are making their first of two trips to Tennessee this week for the Memphis Intercollegiate. Along with their journey to Memphis, the Buckeyes will travel to Johnson City for the Bank of Tennessee at the Ridges, Oct. 24-26. Ohio State has never competed in either tournament in the Volunteer State.
BO-DACIOUS
Sophomore Bo Hoag continued his stellar career last weekend at the William H. Tucker Invitational with a career-high finish of fourth. The Upper Arlington, Ohio, native had rounds of 70-69-74 for a total of 3-under 213 and was just two strokes back from the event’s co-medalists.
It was his fifth Top 10 finish in 12 collegiate events. The two rounds under par were Hoag’s 10th and 11th as a Buckeye and his second round 69 was his sixth round in the 60’s. Last season, Hoag was a Second Team All-Big Ten selection as a true freshman. He had a stroke average of 73.13 and shot a career-low a 67 at the Tucker Invitational in his first collegiate round.
THE WRIGHT MAN
Junior tri-captain Brad Wright started out his Ohio State career in stellar fashion, shooting a 5-under 67 in round one of the William H. Tucker Invitational (Sept. 26). He finished the tournament tied for 14th with a three-round total of 216 (+3). The native of Cambridge, Ohio, transferred to Ohio State last season and redshirted the year.
Over the summer, Wright won three tournaments. In August, he won the 2008 Ohio Publinx Tournament at 10-under in four rounds, which included rounds of 66 and 68. He also won the Eastern Ohio Amateur and the Stark County Amateur Golf Association’s Envirite Tam O’Shanter Spring Classic.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Bo Hoag and Tanner Murphy, who are both playing in Memphis, were teammates at Upper Arlington High School, where they led the team to three-consecutive Top 5 finishes in the Ohio High School State Tournament, including a championship in 2006. Hoag also won the individual title in 06, with Murphy placing third. Upper Arlington placed fourth in 2004 and was runner-up the following year. Hoag finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in 04 and 05. Murphy tied for 13th in ’05.
HOAG LEADS BUCKEYES IN FALL QUALIFYING, AGAIN
Bo Hoag began his sophomore season by winning the team’s Jack Nicklaus Low Fall Qualifier Award for the second-consecutive season with an average of 69.25 in eight rounds. Hoag is just the sixth Buckeye to break with 70-mark in the 35 years of the award and the first since Colin Biles (69.4) in 2004. It was the third-lowest qualifying average with Doug Wade holding the all-time record at 68.6 in 2001.
Fall qualifying for the team was held Sept. 12-21. The Buckeyes played eight rounds on the Scarlet Course and one round on the Gray Course at the OSU Golf Club with the highest score thrown out. Hoag, a native of Upper Arlington, Ohio, carded rounds of 69-72-68-70-70-70-69 with his score of 76 thrown out. He topped it off with a 66 on Gray.
ONE LAST TIME
The 2008-09 season will be the last for Ohio State head coach Jim Brown. It will be Brown’s 36th season at the helm of the Buckeyes and 42nd year overall coaching college golf.
Under his guidance, Ohio State has won a league-record 17 Big Ten championships. The Buckeyes won the conference crown every season from 1976-90, except for 1981 and ’88 when they were runners-up. He has produced 93 All-Big Ten honorees.
Brown, a native of Martins Ferry, Ohio, has served as the head coach for the Buckeyes since 1974. He is currently the winningest active coach in the NCAA with a career record of 5,609-1,791-43 and 157 tournament victories. In his 35 seasons, Brown has led the Buckeyes to 31 NCAA appearances, including the NCAA Central Regional in 2008, and 11 Top 10 NCAA championship finishes. The Buckeyes won the national championship, the second in program history, in 1979.
Individually, Brown has tutored an NCAA individual champion in Clark Burroughs (1985), 18 Big Ten medalists, 11 First Team All-America selections and 40 other All-America honorees. Chris Perry was named College Player of the Year in 1984 and Chris Smith earned both Big Ten Freshman of the Year (1988) and Player of the Year (1990) awards under Brown.
Brown’s student-athletes also have excelled in the classroom. The Buckeyes have received 11 All-America Scholar awards, 55 Academic All-Big Ten honors and 84 Ohio State Scholar-Athletes nods since the inception of both awards in 1987.
As a coach, Brown was named National Coach of the Year in 1979 and ’86, and District IV Coach of the Year in consecutive seasons from 1977-80 and again from 1982-87. He has earned Big Ten Coach of the Year laurels three times in 1995, ’96 and 2004.
LEADING THE WAY
Vaughn Snyder, Patrick Simard and Brad Wright were named captains for the 2008-09 season. All three are first-time captains for the Buckeyes.
Snyder has made an immediate contribution since transferring to Ohio State in December 2007. He has now played in five tournaments as a Buckeye and never finished lower than 20th. Snyder finished tied for 20th at the NCAA Central Regional last spring and tied for 13th at the Big Ten championship. An Academic All-Big Ten honoree and OSU Scholar-Athlete last year, the senior won the 102nd Ohio Amateur in July.
Simard, a junior who has played in 17 tournaments in his career, set the Gray course record this summer, firing a round of 11-under 59. He finished last season with the second-best stroke average at 73.4. Simard had two Top 5 finishes as a sophomore and carded the low round of the season with a 65 last February.
Wright, also a junior, redshirted last season after also transferring to Ohio State. He was selected Academic All-Big Ten and an OSU Scholar-Athlete while sitting out the year. Last week, he opened his Buckeye career with a round of 67 en route to tying for 14th at the Tucker Invitational. This summer, Wright won the Ohio Amateur Publinx title as well as the Eastern Ohio Amateur. While at the University of Akron, he earned First Team All-MAC honors as a sophomore.
MR. 59
Patrick Simard fired a round of 59 on Sept. 10 at The Ohio State University Golf Club’s Gray Course, to set the course record on the par 70, 5,800-yard course. The junior carded two eagles on Nos. 8 and 12 along with nine birdies, including three of par-3s and six on par-4s. He had two bogies, on Nos. 6 and 16. The previous Gray Course record was 60.
Simard, a native of Marbella, Spain, posted the low-round for the Buckeyes last season with a 65. He finished second on the team in stroke average last season with a 73.37.
SUMMER CHAMPIONS
Ohio State men’s golfers posted good results throughout the summer, highlighted by Vaughn Snyder winning the 102nd Ohio Amateur and Brad Wright capturing the 2008 Ohio Publinx championship.
Snyder won the Ohio Amateur in June with rounds of 71-71-70-71 at Findlay Country Club for a 1-under 283 total. The senior from Massillon, Ohio, was the only player to finish the tournament under par, holding off former teammate Kyle Coconis. The tournament was played under harsh conditions: high temperatures, thick rough, lightning-fast greens and nearly impossible pin positions.
In August, Wright, a redshirt-junior from Cambridge, Ohio, won the event shooting rounds of 71-66-73-68 for a total of 10-under 278 to defeat Tom Ballinger, the 2007 champion, by two strokes on the par 72, 7,071-yard Cooks Creek Golf Course. Wright redshirted the 2007-08 season after transferring to Ohio State from the University of Akron.
A SEASON AGO
Ohio State concluded the 2007-08 season with a 119-50-5 record and an appearance in the NCAA Central Regional hosted at the Buckeyes’ Scarlet Course. Ohio State placed in the Top 5 in six of 11 tournaments and the Top 10 in all but one. The Buckeyes return four of the five golfers who competed in the Central Regional. Among the returnees are senior Vaughn Snyder, junior Patrick Simard, and sophomores Bo Hoag, who was named Second Team All-Big Ten as a freshman, and Brad Smith. The four combined for 23 rounds under par and 11 rounds in the 60’s.
UP NEXT
The Buckeyes return to action Oct. 24-26 when they compete in the Bank of Tennessee at the Ridges in Johnson City, Tenn.
