Buckeyes Continue Fall Campaign at Gridiron Golf Classic in South Bend – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Ohio State looks to build off fourth-place Adams Cup performance
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State men’s golf team will continue the 2009 fall season at the fourth- annual Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic Oct. 5-6 in South Bend, Ind. The two-day, 54-hole event hosted by the University of Notre Dame will be held on the par 70, 7,023-yard Warren Golf Course with shotgun starts beginning at 9 a.m. Monday and split-tee starts at 8:15 a.m Tuesday.
IF YOU’RE SCORING AT HOME
Live in-progress scoring for the Fighting Irish Gridiron Classic will be available on www.golfstat.com. Links to the tournament are available on the men’s golf schedule page on www.OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
TOURNAMENT BASICS
Name: Fourth Annual Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic
Course: The Warren Golf Course (par 70, 7,023 yards)
Field (15 teams):
Arkansas
BYU
Cincinnati
Colorado
Georgetown
Houston
Iowa
Lamar
Miami (OH)
Missouri
Notre Dame
Ohio State
San Francisco
St. Mary’s (CA)
UT-Arlington
Schedule:
Monday, Oct. 5 – 9 a.m. (36 holes, shotgun start)
Tuesday, Oct.6 – 8:15 a.m. (18 holes, split-tee start)
THE BUCKEYE FIVE
Representing Ohio State this week will be juniors Bo Hoag and Brad Smith, senior Brad Wright, freshman Zach Sobel and sophomore Dan Charen. While Hoag, Smith and Wright played in the season-opening Adams Cup, this is the first event of their careers for Sobel and Charen.
ALSO PLAYING …
Along with the Gridiron Golf Classic, the Buckeyes will be sending three players down to Durham, N.C. Oct. 5-6 to participate in the Gordin-Myers Collegiate Classic presented by Coca-Cola. Competing as individuals will be junior Tanner Murphy, sophomore Alex Redfield and redshirt-freshman Jamie Sindelar. This is the first collegiate tournament for Sindelar.
The two-day, 54-hole tournament features a 17-team field and will be played at The Duke Golf Club. Live scoring for the event also is available on www.golfstat.com.
ADAMS CUP RECAP
The Buckeyes opened their season at the Adams Cup of Newport/Cleveland Golf Classic in Newport, R.I., Sept 21-22 and finished in fourth place out of the 17-team field. Ohio State had a 54-hole score of 887 (+23), only three strokes behind third-place New Mexico.
The Buckeyes were lead by Bo Hoag, who posted a team-best eighth place finish. The junior from Upper Arlington tallied three-consecutive rounds of 73 to finish with a 3-over 219. Junior Brad Smith finished in a tie for 16th at 6-over 222 with teammate Brad Wright. Rounding out the Buckeye lineup were sophomore Michael Kinkopf in a tie for 37th at 228 and senior David Becher who tied for 41st with a total of 229.
AHEAD OF THE PACK
In his first tournament of the 2009 fall season, junior Bo Hoag finished in a tie for eighth place and has now compiled 13 top-10 finishes in his career at Ohio State. He also has finished in the top-five in four of these occasions. Hoag totaled 17 rounds under par in his first two years as a Buckeye.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic was created by current Notre Dame head coach Jim Kubinski. He began the tradition in 2006 as a way to combine the best of college golf with the experience of a Notre Dame football game. All participants will have the chance to watch the Notre Dame football team take on Washington at Notre Dame Stadium the Saturday prior to the tournament.
THE COURSE AHEAD
Designed by Austin, Texas-based architectural firm of Coore and Crenshaw, headed by Bill Coore and PGA Tour veteran Ben Crenshaw, the Warren Golf Course features an 18-hole layout that stretches across 250 acres on the northeast edge of the Notre Dame campus. The course incorporates a style reminiscent of the “walkable” courses designed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
A NEW ERA
For the first time in 37 years, Ohio State will have a new head coach at the reigns in Donnie Darr. He was named coach of the Buckeyes June 13 following a national search and returned to his home state after serving as assistant coach at national powerhouse Oklahoma State the three previous seasons.
While with the Cowboys, the team extended their record of consecutive NCAA Championship appearances to 63, while placing fourth in 2008 and advancing to the match play portion of the event this season after leading the field in stroke play.
Prior to Oklahoma State, Darr gained experience as the head coach at the University of Akron in 2005-06. During his season with the Zips, he began to rebuild the program and ended the team’s nine-year tournament victory drought.
A 1996 Kent State graduate, Darr began his coaching career at his alma mater. He was the assistant coach for the men’s and women’s golf teams in 2001-02, and was promoted to associate head coach of both programs from 2002-04. Darr also served as assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma during the 2004-05 season.
ALSO NEW TO THE CREW
In July, Donnie Darr added Chris Yoder as his assistant coach. Yoder came to the Buckeyes after six years at his alma mater, Wake Forest. A native of Ashland, Ohio, he assisted under legendary coach Jerry Haas and during his time with the Demon Deacons, he helped haul in some of the most talented recruits in the country, coaching three future PGA Tour players in Bill Haas, Kyle Reifers and Webb Simpson. Wake Forest qualified for five-consecutive NCAA Championships, including a third-place finish in 2006 and two individual runners-up.
The Demon Deacons won nine tournaments the past six seasons, including three victories at the NCAA regional. In Yoder’s six seasons, Wake Forest had seven All-Americans, 11 All-ACC selections, two ACC Players of the Year, one ACC Rookie of the Year and an individual champion at the ACC tournament.
Yoder played for the Demon Deacons and graduated with a degree in mathematics in 2003. He was a four-year letter winner, participated in all four ACC Tournaments and helped lead the team to three appearances at the NCAA championships.
TROPHY SHELF
As a sophomore, Bo Hoag collected a number of awards. The Upper Arlington, Ohio, native was named a PING All-America Honorable Mention selection by the Golf Coaches Association of America, becoming the first Buckeye to earn a spot on the team since Zach Doran in 2003. Hoag also was a PING All-Midwest Region honoree as well as a First Team All-Big Ten award winner.
Hoag led the Buckeyes in 2008-09 with a stroke average of 72.59 while playing in all 37 rounds. Hoag posted 15 rounds of even-par or below with eight top-10 finishes, including six in the last eight events.
BUCKEYE BREAKDOWN
The 2009-10 Buckeye roster breaks down a number of ways:
* 7 different states – Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, Arizona, California and Florida
* 3 different countries – United States, Spain and UAE
* 3 seniors, 4 juniors, 4 sophomores, 2 redshirt freshmen and 3 freshmen
* 5 Ohio cities – Cambridge, Columbus, Dublin, Hilliard and Upper Arlington
UP NEXT
The Buckeyes travel down to Memphis, Tenn., to defend their title at the Memphis Intercollegiate Golf Classic, Oct. 19-20.
