March 17, 2009
THIS WEEK — The University of Iowa men’s golf team will travel to Statesboro, GA, to compete in the 30th annual EZ-GO Schenkel Invitational hosted by Georgia Southern. The tournament will be held at the Forest Heights Country Club. Competition consists of 54 holes, with 18 holes each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
THE COURSE — The Forest Heights golf course, completed in 1947, is one of the nicest courses in the Southeast and home to the annual Southeastern Amateur Golf Tournament. The par 72 layout is 6,962 yards and a challenge for even the most seasoned golfer. Its wide fairways lead to the course’s notoriously difficult greens on most every hole.
THE COMPETITION — Teams competing along with Iowa include Auburn, Augusta State, Florida, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Carolina State, North Florida, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Virginia. According to the March 8 Golfweek rankings, the tournament consists of 11 teams in the top 50.
THIS WEEK’S LINEUP —
1. Cole Peevler Sr. Keokuk, IA (Keokuk)
2. Vince India So. Deerfield, IL (Deerfield)
3. Brad Hopfinger So. Lake Forest, IL (Lake Forest)
4. Brad George FR. Marion, IA (Linn-Mar)
5. Barrett Kelpin FR. Kalamazoo, MI (Loy Norrix)
LAST MEET — The last time the Hawkeyes saw the links was in Dallas, TX, at the second annual Black and Gold Match on Feb. 28. Iowa golfers were given the opportunity to catch some practice on Texas’s most prestigious courses with former Hawkeye golfers.
HEAD COACH Mark Hankins — Hankins is in his second year as Iowa’s head men’s golf coach. He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, at Michigan State, in 2005 and 2007. He led the Spartans to Big Ten Championships those years. Hankins also led the Spartans to five NCAA tournament appearances in his seven years as head coach. He is a native of Mt. Pleasant, IA, and a graduate of Iowa State University.
QUOTING COACH HANKINS — “We’re looking at this as our first large tournament, so we really want five guys to compete individually and hopefully the rest will fall into place. We’ve been practicing hard this break, but now we need to get into competitive mode and try to shoot some low numbers. Our team is ready to play, if everyone works for a top 25 finish, we’ll be successful.”