KirkwoodGolf: INTERNATIONAL COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Friday, September 01, 2006

INTERNATIONAL COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIP

TOP-CLASS AMERICAN COLLEGE
GOLFERS AT ST ANDREWS BAY

How high is the standard of golf on the American college circuit? At the top end, pretty near Walker Cup class might be the answer provided by this weekend’s International Collegiate Championship over three rounds of the Torrance course at St Andrews’ Bay Golf Resort.
The two-day, 54-hole event features seven college teams from the United States - Wake Forest, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Georgia Southern, Baylor and Coastal Carolina – and three from the United Kingdom: British champions Stirling, St Andrews and an R&A Bursary team made up of Mark Campbell (Dublin), Iwan Griffiths (Swansea), Matthew Jones (Cardiff), Mark Kerr (Edinburgh) and Andrea Romano from Bologna, Italy.
Two rounds will be played on Saturday and a further 18 holes on Sunday. The tournament has not been played since its inaugural staging over the same course in 2002 when Wake Forest were the winners. .
Wake Forest finished third in the 2006 NCAA championship.
Baylor’s Jeremy Alcorn is the man in form, having won the Collegiate Players’ Tour championship three weeks ago when his scores included a course-record 64.
Larry Mays, the Georgia Southern head coach, said: “The field in Scotland is stacked with good teams, it should let us know real fast where we stand going into the year. Wake Forest, UNC, Texas A&M, Baylor, Coastal Carolina and Texas Tech are all coming off great seasons.
“This is a once in a lifetime event for most of our players to travel back to the birthplace of golf, get to visit and play golf in St. Andrews. Our players will have a great experience in Scotland and it’ll be something they will remember forever,” said Mays who also planned a trip for the team to play Carnoustie – venue for next year’s Open.”