Upstate Men's Golf Releases Fall Schedule
7/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Spartanburg, S.C. – Coming off its most successful season playing on the Division I level, the USC Upstate men's golf team will look to parlay that momentum when it plays five tournaments this fall as head coach Todd Lawton has announced the Spartans' 2014 fall schedule.
The schedule is arguably the toughest fall schedule in program history with four of the five tournaments being hosted by teams ranked in the Top 110 in the 2014 final Golfstat rankings and two in the Top 50. The fields for the tournaments have historically consisted of several teams ranked in the Top 100 in the nation. Upstate will return to two events it has previously played while making its inaugural appearance in three tournaments.
"This schedule proves to be our strongest competitively on paper," said Lawton. "We are looking forward to playing in these events hosted by the top schools from SEC, ACC and Big Ten conferences. With some very talented returning starters and hardworking newcomers, I feel that we will have the opportunity to improve on last year's success."
Upstate will open the season at the Rees Jones Invitational Sept. 21-23 at the Haig Point Course on Daufuskie Island just off Hilton Head Island. It will be Upstate's first appearance in the tournament which is being co-hosted by A-Sun rival and No. 44 Kennesaw State and UNC Wilmington.
Upstate will make a return trip to the Badger Invitational hosted by Wisconsin at University Ridge Golf Course Sept. 28-30. The Spartans finished fourth in the tournament last year behind South Carolina, Kansas and Illinois State.
Upstate will make its first appearance in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate hosted by N.C. State at the Lonnie Poole Golf Club in Raleigh, N.C., Oct. 6-7. The Spartans will head to Camden, S.C., to play in the Palmetto Intercollegiate hosted by No. 14 South Carolina at the Camden Country Club Oct. 18-19. It will be Upstate's first appearance in the tournament.
Upstate will close out the season at the Wendy's Kiawah Intercollegiate hosted by Charleston Southern at the Turtle Point Course on Kiawah Island, S.C., Nov. 2-4. The Spartans will make their fourth appearance in the tournament. They finished eighth last year with Cornfield taking top honors on the team with a tie for 13th. Upstate was 19th in 2012 and tied for seventh in 2011.
Upstate had a tremendous season in 2013-14. The Spartans won three tournament titles (Springhill Suites Intercollegiate, Rutgers Invitational, Bash at the Beach), the most in a season in program history, and had their first A-Sun All-Conference selection since 2010 with Ryan Cornfield's selection to the team. Taylor White also became the first Spartan to earn A-Sun All-Freshman honors en route to breaking all-time great Josh Gallman's program record for freshman stroke average. Finally, the team finished a program best No. 105 in the final Golfstat rankings after being ranked in the Top 100 for most of the season and broke the program's season stroke average with at 294.5.
Lawton will return a strong core of players to this year's team. Cornfield returns as a junior and the leader of the team. In addition to earning all-conference honors last spring, he won the prestigious Berkshire Trophy amateur tournament in England earlier this summer. White also returns to the squad along with Sebastian Lopez Bulla, who joined Cornfield and White as returning players who played in every tournament last season. In addition to those three players, Upstate returns three other lettermen (Sean Hassell, Andrew Purcell, Trey Taylor) and has bolstered the lineup with two newcomers (David DeMarois and Tom Schofield).
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