April 5, 2012

Tournament Notes

COLUMBIA S.C. — The South Carolina men’s golf team will close out the regular season this weekend at the River Landing Intercollegiate in Wallace, N.C. The 12-team field will play 36 holes on Friday and 18 on Saturday on the par-72, 6,901-yard layout at River Landing Golf Club.

The Gamecocks are wrapping up a stretch of six tournaments in six weeks, and South Carolina head coach Bill McDonald said his team is determined to have a strong showing before heading to the SEC Championship.

“It’s a really solid field and a good golf course,” McDonald said. “It’s our last regular season event, and I’m really pushing these guys. I want to win something soon. If we can play with a little bit better course management and some better decision making, I think we can play well this week.”

Carolina is coming off a tie for seventh place finish at the Insperity Augusta State Invitational last weekend with rounds of 284-285-289=858 (-6). Playing in his hometown of Augusta, Ga., junior Dykes Harbin led the way, finishing in a tie for 12th with a career-best 54-hole score of 210 (-6), which included a career-low 68 in the final round.

“We played pretty well last week against a very good field,” McDonald said. “We really blew some opportunities the last day to move up in the pack a little bit, but overall it was a good finish for us. It was a great finish by hometown boy Dykes Harbin in the last round, shooting a 68. I was really happy for him.”

Harbin remains in the lineup for the River Landing Intercollegiate and will be joined by senior Wesley Bryan and freshmen Caleb Sturgeon, Will Murphy and Sean Kelly. It marks the third time this season the Gamecocks will tee off with this group. In its first two outings, Carolina produced a third-place finish at the Palmetto Intercollegiate and an eighth-place showing at the Chris Schenkel Invitational.

The Gamecocks are making their first appearance at the River Landing Intercollegiate, which features a large ACC contingent with No. 16 Duke headlining the field. North Carolina, North Carolina State, Maryland and Virginia Tech make up the rest of the ACC competitors, while co-hosts UNC Wilmington and East Carolina, Jacksonville, Liberty, Winthrop and VCU round out the field. The Gamecocks have had plenty of success against this field, compiling a 16-3-1 record on the season.

ECU enters the weekend as the defending champion after posting a three-round score of 841 (-23) at last year’s tournament to win by three strokes over Liberty.

Carolina will tee off in the first round on Friday beginning at 8:20 a.m. The Gamecocks are paired with ECU and Liberty. Live scoring will not be available for this event.