Sunday, April 17, 2011

MACON, Ga. – A pair of top-50 programs plus defending champion ETSU lead a field of 11 teams set to vie for the 2011 Atlantic Sun Men’s Golf Championship from the Chateau Course at Chateau Elan beginning Monday morning.

The defending champion Buccaneers enter off earning their first team tournament victory of the season. The Buccaneers won the 15-team Coca-Cola Wofford Invitational on Tuesday, rallying from an 11-stroke hole to win by five strokes. Lucas Armstrong placed second at the event.

In both the latest GolfStat.com and GolfWeek.com rankings, a pair of A-Sun schools rank inside the top 50. UNF, winner of the 2008 A-Sun Championship, ranks 44th in the GolfWeek.com ratings while Kennesaw State sits in 49th. According to GolfStat.com, the Owls own the top ranking, placing 45th with the Ospreys in 47th.

Kennesaw State’s Jeff Karlsson and Matt Nagy rank as the highest A-Sun golfers in the chase for the Golfstat Cup. Karlsson a two-time winner of the A-Sun Golfer of the Week award, ranks 11th in the latest standings. This season, he owns wins at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate in September and the Seminole Intercollegiate in March. Nagy ranks 33rd in the GolfStat Cup standings. After red-shirting in 2009-10, he has returned to the Owls lineup with a flourish winning at the Rees Jones Intercollegiate and at the Barefoot at the Beach.

Off a second-place showing at the 2010 A-Sun Championship, FGCU has remained an upper echelon team within the conference. The Eagles own two team victories, claiming the Mizuno Savannah Intercollegiate and the Stetson/CFSC Invitational. Daniel Mazziotta won the individual crown at the Stetson/CFSC Invitational and tied for the top spot at the Rio Pinar Invitational in March. He joins Karlsson and Nagy inside the GolfStat Cup top 50, ranking 48th entering the Championship.

The Chateau Course that features contoured fairways, thick Bermuda roughs, and strategically placed lakes and ponds opened in July 1989. Built on 170 acres of the finest terrain, the 7,030 yard layout of the Chateau Elan Course, designed by Denis Griffiths, plays to a par 71. Winding along three lakes and two creeks, water comes into play on ten of the eighteen holes while 87 bunkers give definition and character to the course. Chateau Elan has served as the A-Sun Championship course twice before. The Woodlands Course played host in 2008 and last year, the teams competed at The Legends Course.

Play begins at 8 a.m. Monday with Jacksonville and Lipscomb opening play off the first tee. Fans can follow the action at Golfstat.com.

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The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts five of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.