Oct. 16, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s golf team will take to the course at the Lone Star Invitational in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday and Monday. The two day, 54-hole tournament will be taking place at Brigg’s Ranch Golf Club measuring to a distance of 7,258 yards while playing to a par 72.
The Lone Star Invitational will give many members of the Irish squad the unique experience of not only playing in the state of Texas, but also against many teams in which Notre Dame does not normally tee it up with. Of the twelve teams participating in the event, nine hail from Texas (Texas-San Antonio, Houston, North Texas, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Texas-Pan American, Texas State, UT-Arlington and Texas-El Paso), one from Louisiana (Louisiana Monroe) and Utah (Weber State) with Notre Dame serving as the lone representative from Indiana.
Last week (Oct. 11-12), at Firestone North in Akron, Ohio, the Irish were 17 shots clear of third place (New Mexico State), but fell short of Indiana’s 849 (-15) by a single stroke. Individually, juniors Max Scodro and Tom Usher paced the Irish finishing third and fourth, respectively. Scodro shot a seven-under par, 209 (-7) to finish just two back of co-medalists David Erdy of Indiana University and Maryland’s John Popeck (207, -9).
Freshman Niall Platt played a phenomenal first round by carding a 65 (-7). He posted eight birdies with only one bogey, which tied the lowest to-par single round score (-7) in program history – previously shared by Doug Fortner and Mark Baldwin.
“Niall’s played in all three tournaments in his early Irish career so far and has played great in each of them,” Irish head coach Jim Kubinski says. “He does a great job of keeping the ball in play, taking advantage of his iron shots and then he’s just an amazing putter. He is actually one of the shorter hitters on our team, but it just shows that if you know how to hit your irons and read the greens, distance doesn’t always matter.”
Notre Dame’s rotation at the Lone Star Invitational looks similar to the Firestone Invitational, with Scodro, Usher, Platt and Chris Walker all competing yet again. Paul McNamara III returns to the Irish rotation for the first time since competing in the fall season opener at the Invite at Kiawah.
THE COMPETITION: The Lone Star Invitational will be made up of a 12-team field, including (Golfstat rankings from 10.13.10 in parentheses): Texas-San Antonio (224), Houston (41), North Texas (26), Sam Houston State (100), Stephen F. Austin (159), Texas-Pan American (256), Texas State (114), UT-Arlington (80), Texas-El Paso (179), Louisiana Monroe (103), Weber State (119) and Notre Dame (28).
THE LONE STAR INVITATIONAL: The 2010 edition of the Lone Star Invitational will mark the second year of the tournaments existence, the first with the Irish as entrants. In the inaugural event in 2009, the Aggies of Texas A&M claimed the team crown by shooting a 16-under par, 848. In addition, John Hurley brought home Medalist honors back to College Station by carding a 10-under par 206 for the Aggies.
FORMAT: Each team’s lineup will be comprised of five golfers with the lowest four scores for each round counting towards the overall team score. The tournament will span two days (Sunday-Monday, October 17-18) with the first 36 holes being played on Sunday and the final 18 holes coming on Monday. The opening round on Sunday will consist of a shotgun start at 8 a.m. with continuous play for round two following the conclusion of round one. The final round will be made up of split-tee stars from #1/#10 beginning at 8 a.m.
RESULTS: Live hole-by-hole scoring of the Lone Star Invitational will be available through Golfstat. To access the site go to http://www.golfstatresults.com. Daily recaps and standings will be posted on und.com.
–ND–