Oct. 9, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s golf team will make its first appearance ever this Fri.-Sat., Oct. 11-12 when the Irish participate in the Fresno State-Lexus Classic in Fresno, Calif. The 16-team, 54-hole tournament will be played on the par 72, 6,847-yard San Joaquin Country Club. Fresno State is the defending team champion and Bulldogs’ all-American Nick Watney took medalist honors a year ago.
The Teams: Arizona State, Augusta State, Brigham Young, UC-Santa Barbara, Colorado State, Denver, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Louisiana-Monroe, Nevada, Notre Dame, Pacific, San Diego State, San Jose State, Texas-El Paso and Utah. Scoring for the tournament will be five players with the low four scores counted.
Dates and Times: Friday, October 11 play will consist of an 8:00 a.m. shotgun start for round one. Round two will begin immediately following the first round with a shotgun start. Saturday, October 12 will have a shotgun start with an 8:00 a.m. tee time.
Irish Lineup: Coach John Jasinski’s lineup will be made up of four freshmen and one senior for the Fresno State-Lexus Invitational. Making the trip will be Scott Gustafson (Fr., Eden Prairie, Minn.), Eric Deutsch (Fr., Rochester, Minn.), Tommy Balderston (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.), Mark Baldwin (Fr., Laconia, N.H.) and Brandon Lunke (Sr., San Antonio, Tex.).
Last Tournament: This week’s tournament is the first for the Irish since Sept. 24-25 when they finished ninth in the 14-team Kansas Invitational at Lawrence, Kan. Notre Dame finished 41 strokes behind tournament winner Baylor as the Irish fired a 54-hole total of 904 with rounds of 303-304-297-904. Gustafson was Notre Dame’s top finisher with a three-over par 219 (75-69-75) which tied him for 17th. His second-round 69 was the best round of his Irish career. Balderston and junior Gavin Ferlic (South Bend, Ind.) tied for 46th with 218 totals. Deutsch tied for 55th with a 219 and Mark Baldwin was 64th after firing a 234.
Irish Leaders: Gustafson leads the Irish through the first two tournaments with a 75.00 average while Deutsch is second with a 75.67 and is followed by Baldwin 78.00 (one tournament) and Balderston (79.50). Lunke makes his first appearance of the season. The senior is a three-time monogram winner who has played in 16 tournaments in his first three seasons with a 76.98 average.
Tournament Results: Complete results will be available on the Notre Dame website at und.com. For more information on the Fresno State-Lexus Classic, contact Tim Connor or Adam Porcelli at (574-631-7516).
Next For The Irish: Notre Dame’s men’s golf team will next be in action on Oct. 21-22 when the Irish travel to Dallas, Texas to play in the SMU Stonebridge Invitational at the Stonebridge Country Club.