Men's Golf Opens Season Monday at Shoal Creek
9/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Sept. 20, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Baylor's men's golf team will tee off its 2008 fall season Monday at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate, hosted by UAB at the par-72 Shoal Creek Country Club.
The tournament will feature 36 holes on Monday with the final 18 on Tuesday. The 12-team field features five teams ranked among the nation's Top 30 in Golfweek's preseason rankings, including tournament host No. 24 UAB. Along with the Bears and Blazers, the field includes Auburn, East Tennessee State (No. 14), Georgia Southern, LSU, Ole Miss (No. 30), North Florida, Oklahoma, Texas Tech (No. 17), Tulsa and Wake Forest (No. 15). Texas Tech won the 2007 Shoal Creek title, marking the third different team to win the event.
Baylor, which advanced to its 11th-consecutive NCAA Regional last season, is making its second appearance in the tournament's four-year history. In 2006, the Bears shot 894, finishing seventh out of 15 teams.
"We are excited to get the season started and are able to play such a great golf course like Shoal Creek," Baylor head coach Greg Priest said. "We are putting a very strong team out there and they are ready to play after a long eight-round qualifier."
True freshman Joakim Mikkelsen (Drammen, Norway) and sophomore transfer Austin Berkovsky (Aledo, Texas) will make their Baylor debut this week at Shoal Creek. Berkovsky spent his freshman season at Arkansas, playing one fall tournament in 2007. Senior Bill Allcorn (Abilene, Texas), junior Colton Williams (Jacksboro, Texas) and sophomore Cody Paladino (Kensington, Conn.) round out the Baylor lineup.
Williams, an All-Big 12 selection in 2008, led the Bears with a 73.08 stroke average over 36 rounds, while carding one of Baylor's two individual tournament titles. Allcorn, lone senior in the lineup, and Paladino are the only returning golfers to play all 37 rounds for Baylor last season.
Live scoring of the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate will be available at www.golfstat.com.
Players Mentioned
