Hawkeyes Travel To Spring Break Championship

March 25, 2009

THIS WEEK — The University of Iowa men’s golf team will travel to Delray Beach, FL, to compete in the inaugural Spring Break Championship hosted by Florida Atlantic University. The tournament will be held at Gleneagles Country Club in Delray Beach. A practice round will be held Thursday morning, followed by 18 holes of competition each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Live scoring will be available on golfstatresults.com.

THE COURSE — Competition will be held on the newly renovated Victory Course at Gleneagles Country Club. The 18-hole Karl Litten course is a 6043-yard par 71 which offers narrow, challenging fairways.

THE COMPETITION — Teams competing along with Iowa include Ohio State, Florida Atlantic, Northwestern, Michigan, Missouri, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Notre Dame, Memphis, Northern Illinois and Marquette. The 14-team field has representatives from the Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Conference-USA, Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences. The Big 10 will bring three of the nation’s top-50 teams including Illinois (No. 7), Michigan (No. 40) and Iowa (No. 46).

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 — Last weekend, the Hawkeyes placed 14th of 18 teams in an extremely tough EZ-GO Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, GA. Iowa was lead by sophomore Brad Hopfinger who carded a 54-hole score of 216 (E) to finish tied for 11th. The Hawkeyes overcame a tough opening round to improve there spot on the leader board each day of competition.

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.