The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Brings College Tournament Back To Shoal Creek
9/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Sept. 25, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Shoal Creek makes a triumphant return to top-level college golf Monday and Tuesday when it and UAB combine to host the 2005 Shoal Creek Intercollegiate. The tournament features 15 of the top teams and several of the top individual men's college golfers in the nation. Monday's first of two rounds tees off with a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday's third and final round will be tee times beginning at 8:15 with the leaders beginning at 10:22 a.m. The 54-hole tournament on the par-72, 7,145-yard course is free and open to the public.
"We can't be more excited to welcome these teams and these golfers to Birmingham and to Shoal Creek," UAB head men's golf coach Alan Kaufman said. "We feel we have compiled one of the most competitive and top-level fields of any tournament around. It was important for me and for us at UAB to make this first Shoal Creek event a memorable one so the momentum would carry us forward and allow this to become one of the annual fall tournaments people are clamoring to play."
Shoal Creek, host to the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championship and 1986 U.S. Amateur, has been without a high-level men's college golf event since the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate moved nine years ago. Kaufman, a Shoal Creek member, wanted to bring a top-tier collegiate tournament back to the course, long respected as one of golf's finest jewels in the South.
Rick Yeary, golf committee chairman at Shoal Creek, also wanted to bring an amateur event back to the course and the idea for the tournament was born.
"It was important to give the course and our community the best possible field we could find," Kaufman said. "When you look at the teams that are playing, it's hard not to be impressed with this first field."
Impressive is certainly a fitting description. No fewer than four top-25 teams from the final Golfweek Magazine computer ratings dot the Shoal Creek roster. Florida (No. 7) and Tennessee (No. 13) finished 2004-05 in the top-15 in the nation. Other prominent programs include Georgia State (No. 23) and Alabama (No. 24). SMU (No. 28), LSU (No. 44), East Tennessee State (No. 47) and UCF (No. 48).
The top individuals in the field include a veritable Who's Who of college and amateur golf. ETSU's Rhys Davies was the No. 3 ranked golfer in all of college golf a year ago, according to Golfweek. Matt Every of Florida was Golfweek's No. 12 golfer for 2004-05. That duo fought on opposite sides during this summer's Walker Cup match won by the U.S.
UAB will send 2004-05 All-Conference USA first-teamer Garrett Osborn, senior Clark Brown, sophomore Kaylor Timmons and freshmen Zack Sucher and Josh Thompson to the tees. Local schools Birmingham-Southern and Alabama are also in the field.
