April 18, 2008

Live Scoring

Championship Central

Complete Men's Golf Championship Advance in PDF Format

TEXARKANA, Ark. - Eleven men's golf teams are set to tee off Sunday morning as the 2008 Conference USA Men's Golf Championship gets underway at the Texarkana Country Club in Texarkana, Ark. The championship consists of 54 holes on the par 72, 6,935-yard course over three days. The winner of the championship receives an automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals.

After a blind draw, it was determined Marshall and UCF would tee off first at 8 a.m. UCF, under the direction of head coach Nick Clinard, are currently ranked No. 19 nationally by Golfweek. Juniors Greg Forest and David Johnson have been the Knights top performers (both rank among the nation's Top 65), while teammate Giwon Suh is the reigning C-USA Golfer of the Week. The Thundering Herd is led by sophomore Christian Brand, the 2007 C-USA Freshman of the Year, who posted two Top 15 performances in the fall.

East Carolina, Memphis and Rice begin competition at 8:50 a.m. The Pirates are a relatively young team with no seniors in the lineup. Junior Andre Thorsen holds the team's best stroke average (73.35), but his teammates have all recorded at least one Top 12 finish or better this season. Rice is also young as the Owls are led by sophomores Christopher Brown and Michael Buttacavoli. Memphis junior Brad Benjamin has placed among the Top 20 in his previous two C-USA Championships.

Houston, SMU and Southern Miss tee off at 9:40 a.m. CDT. The Cougars are led by senior Jordan Irwin, who finished in a tie for second at last year's Championship to earn All-Tournament honors. Sophomore Draegan Majors was the Mustangs top finisher in 2007, but SMU has added talented freshman Kelly Kraft to its lineup. Southern Miss placed third in the 2007 C-USA Championship, and will be paced this year by junior Paul Apyan and sophomore Rob Hudson.

Defending champion Tulsa, UAB and UTEP are the last group off the tees, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The Golden Hurricane graduated four seniors off its 2007 Conference USA and NCAA Central Region championship squads, but will be led by returning junior Nicholas Geyger and reigning C-USA Coach of the Year Bill Brogden. Geyger tied for second at last year C-USA Championship in Texarkana. UAB, the 2007 runner-up, also lost medalist Garrett Osborn to graduation. However, the Blazers do have the services of Zach Sucher, who placed fourth at last year's NCAA Championship and ranked No. 32 nationally by Golfweek, and 2007 C-USA Newcomer of the Year Brad Smith. The Miners are led by junior Roger Sloan, who missed all-tournament team honors last season by just one stroke, as well as another newcomer to keep an eye on in freshman Herbert Day.

Live scoring of this year's Conference USA Men's Golf Championship will be provided by Golfstat and can be accessed by logging onto www.conferenceusa.com.