July 20, 2013

2013-14 Schedule

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina head men’s golf coach Bill McDonald announced his team’s schedule for the 2013-14 season on Saturday.

The Gamecocks will play in four tournaments in the fall and five in the spring before postseason play begins, with seven of the nine tournaments returning from last year’s schedule. McDonald’s squad is coming off a stellar 2012-13 season that included seven top-three finishes, with one tournament win and four runner-up finishes. South Carolina returns eight golfers from last year’s squad, including four who were in the lineup at the SEC Championship, NCAA Columbus Regional and NCAA Championship in juniors Caleb Sturgeon and Sean Kelly and sophomores Matt NeSmith and Will Starke.

“We have a challenging and exciting tournament schedule in place for the season,” McDonald said. “We are playing a very similar schedule to the past but we have added a trip to Wisconsin and we are returning to Wilmington’s event as well. I think the combination of challenging courses and varied playing conditions should prepare us well for another run at the postseason.”

South Carolina will open the season for the eighth straight year at the Carpet Capital College. The event will be held Sept. 6-8 at The Farm Golf Club in Dalton, Ga.

After a 14-day break, the Gamecocks will host the Rees Jones Invitational at Haig Point Golf Club in Daufuskie Island, S.C. The tournament, which traditionally runs two days, will be played over a three-day stretch from Sept. 22-24 this year. South Carolina has won the tournament twice and has never finished worse than third in four all-time appearances. The Gamecocks will close out the month at the Badger Invitational, which will be held Sept. 29-30 at University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wis.

With no tournaments on the schedule for October, the Gamecocks will wrap up their fall slate at the Wendy’s Kiawah Classic on Nov. 3-5 at Turtle Point Golf Club in Kiawah Island, S.C. South Carolina is the defending champion after winning the event by 20 strokes last season, with Sturgeon winning medalist honors to lead the way.

The Gamecocks will open their spring schedule at the Bayou City Collegiate Championship for the second straight year. The tournament runs Feb. 21-23 at Redstone Golf Club in Houston, Texas.

South Carolina will play three tournaments in March. The Gamecocks are slated to tee off in the Palmetto Intercollegiate for the third straight year on March 10-11 in Aiken, S.C. Later that week South Carolina will play in the Seahawk Intercollegiate. The tournament runs March 16-17 at the Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, N.C. The Gamecocks close out the month in a familiar tournament as they will play in the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate on March 23-25 at Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, S.C. South Carolina will be making its 10th consecutive appearance at the event.

The Gamecocks are slated to wrap up their regular-season schedule at the Augusta State Invitational. The 54-hole tournament will be held April 5-6 at Forest Hills Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.

The 2014 SEC Championship will be contested on April 25-27 at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga. NCAA Regionals will be held May 15-17 at six sites – Auburn University Club in Auburn, Ala., The Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia, Mo., Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, N.C., Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore., and Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas.

The NCAA Championship will be held May 27 through June 1 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.