Ohio State Welcomes Field of 15 for 2012 Kepler Intercollegiate – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/12/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
April 12, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State men’s golf team hopes to continue building momentum for the Big Ten Championships as the team plays host to a 15-team field at the 2012 Robert Kepler Intercollegiate Tournament, April 14-15. The Buckeyes return to the par 71, 7,455-yard Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University Golf Club in Columbus after claiming their second win of the season earlier this month.
Live scoring for the 2012 Kepler Intercollegiate will be available on www.golfstat.com with daily summaries following each round at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com. Updates during the tournament will be posted on the team’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
TOURNAMENT BASICS
Name: Robert Kepler Intercollegiate
Course: The Ohio State University – Scarlet Course (par 71, 7,455 yards)
Field (15): (Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, April 8)
Ball State
Bowling Green
Dayton
Eastern Michigan
Indiana
Kent State (20)
Marshall
Northwestern
Ohio
Ohio State
SMU
Toledo
Western Kentucky
Wright State
Xavier
Schedule:
Saturday – First and second rounds; shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.
Sunday – Final round; Tee times off Nos. 1 and 10 start at 8:30 a.m.
HOW IT WORKS
Hosted by Ohio State, the tournament consists of 54-holes of golf over two days of play. Competition will kick off with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, and continue throughout the day with the first and second rounds. Sunday will also begin at 8:30 a.m.; this time, however, golfers will have scheduled tee times and compete in only one round of play.
Each team will have five golfers participating in the tournament. The lowest four scores will count toward the final team score.
LAST TIME OUT
The Buckeyes captured their second first-place finish of the season at the Villanova Wildcat Invitational, April 2-3. The Buckeyes carded a 38-over 890, while junior Matt Turner took home the individual title with a 1-under 212 on the gusty par-71, 7,055-yard White Manor Country Club course in Malvern, Pa.
Turner went into the final round with a four-stroke lead after recording a 72 and 68 in the first and second rounds of play. The win marks the first individual win of Turner’s Buckeye career.
Two other Buckeyes also recorded top 10 finishes. Senior Alex Redfield and freshman Boo Timko each tallied a 12-over 225 to finish tied for sixth.
SCOUTING THE FIELD
Ohio State welcomes some familiar faces to the 2012 edition of the Kepler Intercollegiate, including nine teams from the state of Ohio. The Scarlet and Gray have faced nine of the 15 teams competing, and have posted an 11-3 record against those schools.
Ball State, Dayton, Eastern Michigan, Kent State and Xavier all return to the Scarlet Course after competing in the tournament last season.
KEPLER TOURNAMENT NEWS AND NOTESBeginning in 1969, the tournament was named in honor of famed head coach Robert Kepler, who guided the Buckeyes to nine NCAA Championship finishes in 12 years and a first-place finish in 1945. The late Kepler served as head coach from 1938-1965, and helped guide the legendary Jack Nicklaus to an individual NCAA title.
- Ohio State has amassed the most titles of any participant with 23 victories. Big Ten rivals Indiana and Northwestern, along with in-state powerhouse Kent State, have each acquired four titles
- Ohio State last won the team title in 2003
- Since the tournament began, only 11 schools have won the title: Ohio State, Indiana, Northwestern, Kent State, Colorado, Louisville, Miami (OH), UNLV, Xavier, Eastern Michigan and Illinois
- The Scarlet Course has played host to the Kepler Intercollegiate 28 times in 41 years
- The Scarlet Course became a par 71 following its redesign in 2005-06
- Illinois and Kent finished shared first-place honors at the 2011 edition of the Kepler Intercollegiate. The pair finished with three-round totals of 857 (+5), the lowest total ever recorded at the tournament
- Luke Guthrie (Illinois) and John Hahn (Kent State) took individual honors in 2011, each finishing 3-under 210
THE SCARLET COURSE
The tournament will take place on the par 71, 7,455-yard Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University Golf Club in Upper Arlington, Ohio, just two miles northwest of Ohio State’s main campus in Columbus. The Golf Club opened in 1938 and was designed by golf course architect Dr. Alister McKenzie. It remained relatively untouched for nearly 70 years before it was redesigned in 2005 under the direction of golfer and Ohio State alumnus Jack Nicklaus, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest golfers in history.
The Club actually features two courses-the Scarlet and the Gray-with Scarlet being the more challenging of the two measuring roughly 1,600 yards longer. The Scarlet Course has been home to a number of events at the amateur and professional level, including U.S. Open Qualifying, Nationwide Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational, a record 10 men’s NCAA championships, as well as the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate for the men’s team and Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational for the women’s team.
WEATHER REPORT
After a rainy start to last season’s Kepler Intercollegiate, dry weather will certainly be welcomed in Columbus this weekend. The outlook, however, calls for a 40 percent chance of precipitation Saturday, with scattered thunderstorms in the area. Sunday thunderstorms will be more isolated and the chance for poor weather weakens.
Temperatures are projected to reach the high-60s, low-70s.
UP NEXT
The Kepler Intercollegiate will wrap up the Buckeyes’ regular season. Ohio State will return April 27-29 for the Big Ten Championships in French Lick, Ind. The NCAA tournament will follow in Pacific Palisades, Calif., May 17-19.
