South Carolina Set To Host Camden Collegiate Invitational

Oct. 21, 2016

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina will look to defend its team title this weekend as it host the third annual Camden Collegiate Invitational Saturday-Sunday at the Camden Country Club in Camden, S.C.

Round one begins Saturday with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. The field will play 36 holes the first day and 18 holes on Sunday.

The Gamecocks got back on track at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate on Sept. 23-25 after a tough outing to start the year at the Carpet Capital Collegiate. The team took fifth overall at the Maui Jim after shooting 13-under-par. Carolina was led by standout sophomore Scott Stevens, who shot the third best 54-hole score in school history with a 198 (-15). Stevens earned runner-up medalist honors, good for the best individual finish of his career.

Junior Keenan Huskey had his second-straight top-20 finish after shooting 210 (-3). Huskey tied for the fourth-lowest 18-hole score in program history when he shot a 64 (-7) in the second round.

HISTORY AT THE CAMDEN COLLEGIATE INVITATIONAL

Carolina has won the Camden Collegiate Invitational in its inaugural two seasons and will look to three-peat as team champs this year.

The Gamecocks shot an 838 (-2) to claim top honors last season at the CCI. Charleston Southern shot 863 (+23) and Furman shot 865 (+25) to round out the top-three.

Huskey was the low-indivudual. He shot 5-under-par (205) en route to medalist honors. Stevens and fellow sophomore Will Miles joined Huskey in the top-10 of the individual standings. Miles took runner-up medalist honors after shooting 2-under-par for the tournament (208). Stevens tied for 10th after shooting 5-over (215).

TOURNAMENT FIELD

This year’s Camden Collegiate Invitational field features 14 teams, 13 from NCAA Division I and one school from NCAA Division II (USC Aiken). The tournament, which was created to highlight instate golf programs from across South Carolina, will feature eight Carolina schools this year: South Carolina, Charleston Southern, Francis Marion, Furman, Presbyterian, USC Aiken, USC Upstate and Wofford.

Two Ivy Leagye schools are in the field this year in Dartmouth and Harvard. James Madison and Gardner-Webb are both ranked in the top-75 of Golfstat’s latest rankings. USC Aiken is slotted No. 17 in Golfstat’s NCAA Division II rankings.

RECAPPING THE 2015-16 SEASON

South Carolina advanced to its fourth straight NCAA Championship after a second place finish at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional behind SEC foe Georgia. At the NCAA Championship, the Gamecocks sat in 14th place heading into the final round of stroke play.

The team finished seventh after shooting a final round 277 (-3) to advance to the match play portion of the event for the first time in school history. The seventh-place finish was the team’s highest ever in stroke play at the NCAA Championship. In match play, the Gamecocks fell to eventual national runner-up Illinois, 4-1. Then-freshman Scott Stevens earned the lone point for the Gamecocks.

Three of the five players from Carolina’s NCAA Championship squad, Sean Kelly, Matt NeSmith and Will Starke, have graduated and moved on to the Canadian PGA Tour. Keenan Huskey and Scott Stevens return for the Gamecocks this season. The team’s final Golfstat ranking was 10th, marking the second-straight top-10 finish for the program.

MCDONALD’S 18

Gamecock head coach Bill McDonald is the winningest coach by tournament victories in school history with 18. McDonald broke the previous record of nine held by Puggy Blackmon (1995-2007) with Carolina’s win at the Carpet Capital Collegiate in September 2014. McDonald captured a school-record five wins in 2014-15 and snagged his latest victory at the 2016 Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate.

UP NEXT FOR THE GAMECOCKS

South Carolina will travel 4,623 miles west to wrap-up its fall season at the Ka’anapali Collegiate in Lahaina, Hawaii. The three day event, hosted by the University of Hawaii, runs from Nov. 4-6 and will be played at the Royal Kaanapali Course.