The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Men's Golf Battles Hitchcock Field
4/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
April 7, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB men's golf team returns to the links Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Billy Hitchcock Intercollegiate golf tournament hosted by Auburn University. The three-day, 54-hole tournament will play on the par-72, 7,207-yard Auburn University Club course at Yarbrough Farms.
UAB is coming off a 13th-place finish at the Oregon Duck Invitational March 21-22 in Eugene, Ore. Garrett Osborn led the Blazers for the second straight tournament, carding rounds of 77-73-69 to finish tied for 21st in the 90-player field. Ryan Thomas shot a seven-over-par 223 for the tournament, while Chris Cousins (231), Clark Brown (232) and Jason Woyak (235) were all within four strokes of one another.
"I was a bit disappointed with our outcome at Oregon," UAB head coach Alan Kaufman admitted. "We are one or two consistent rounds away from moving from the middle of the pack on the team leaderboard, to being at or near the top. Garrett has been playing very strong lately. If we can get one or two of the others to put together three solid rounds this weekend, we'll make a run. As a coach, you hope one good round gets some momentum for one player, then the rest catch on and ride the wave."
UAB will be exercising its final test before competing in the Conference USA Tournament on April 18-20 in Biloxi, Miss. The Blazers finished fourth at last year's championships.
"We need to get some momentum and our seniors need to step up," Kaufman said. "A good result this weekend will help our confidence and perhaps give us some momentum going to Biloxi."
The Hitchcock field features host and sixth-rated Auburn, No. 17 Georgia State and a handful of top-100 rated teams, including UAB which stands No. 71 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin ratings. Conference USA rivals Charlotte (No. 62) and Memphis (No. 67) are in the field, as are in-state rivals South Alabama (No. 103) and Jacksonville State (No. 137). SEC members Ole Miss (No. 52) and Mississippi State (No. 78) and Big 10 member Illinois (No. 73) also dot the list of competition for the Blazers.
"It's a good field," Kaufman said. "Auburn is a really, really strong team and the other big name schools there have some good players. We've never backed down from scheduling the tougher tournaments and this one certainly qualifies as such."
UAB will field its normal foursome of Osborn, Cousins, Thomas and Brown. Freshman Kaylor Timmons will get the nod as the fifth golfer for the Blazers this weekend.
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