University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Conclude Fall Season with Two-Day Tournament
October 22, 2009 | Men's Golf
Oct. 22, 2009
Tennessee tries to cap its best fall season in 12 years under head coach Jim Kelson when the Vols travel to Greensboro, N.C., for the weekend UNCG Bridgestone Golf Collegiate.
The Vols enter the tournament 10th in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Ratings and 12th according to Golfstat. Twelve teams from the top 100 of both ratings services are competing at Forest Oaks Country Club, home to the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship from 1977-2007.
Augusta State ranks ninth according to Golfweek/Sagarin and 16th in Golfstat. Other top squads (Golfweek ranking first) in the 15-team field include Duke (20/21), Virginia (25/26), Virginia Tech (31/30), Georgia Tech (32/38), Virginia Commonwealth (35/37), North Carolina (39/42) and Michigan (46/51).
Tennessee already has claimed two tournament victories in three tries this year, winning the Carpet Capital Collegiate for the first time and rallying for a scorecard triumph at last weekend's Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate (BTI). In between was a seventh-place showing at the Windon Memorial outside Chicago.
UT owns nine fall tournament championships since Kelson's 1998 arrival, and only the 2004 autumn could compare to this season.
Tennessee that year claimed the BTI and followed with a victory in its home Coca-Cola Tournament of Champions. But the Vols also placed fifth at the Gary Koch Intercollegiate and closed their fall with a 15th-place result at the Carpet Capital.
One year ago, Tennessee had two seconds, a third and a seventh-place finish before the winter break.
Kelson's lineup stays the same this weekend, with Robin Wingardh, Darren Renwick, David Holmes, Justin Walker and Jay Vandeventer earning nods.
Wingardh has been his usual steady self of late -- four consecutive rounds of 72 -- but hasn't been better than that since a final-round 68 at the Carpet Capital. Six of the junior's nine rounds have been par or better and he leads the squad with a 71.78 stroke average.
Renwick earned SEC Golfer of the Week after his Saturday 67 led to a second-place finish at The Ridges. The sophomore earlier tied for medalist honors at the Carpet Capital and owns a 72.00 stroke average.
Holmes carded a 68 Saturday to aid his tie for 11th place. It was the Knoxville senior's second top-15 finish this year and his sixth over the last season and a half. His three-tournament stroke average is 72.67.
Walker's innocent-looking 77 on Sunday proved to be the tiebreaker against Oregon State, which received a 78 from its fifth-scoring player. The Springfield sophomore keeps lowering his scores -- 226, 225, 222 -- each time out and owns a 74.78 stroke average.
Vandeventer contributed in two of the BTI's three rounds, shooting a rock-solid 75-73-74--222 to tie for 40th. The freshman's stroke average over his last four rounds is 72.75.
Saturday's format features 36 holes, with Sunday's final round set for 18. Play begins both days at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The weather forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of showers Saturday, but clearing on Sunday. Highs are expected to reach the upper 60s.
Complete tournament information is available at UTsports.com and Golfstat.com.
Players Mentioned
