April 15, 2004

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina men’s golf team will look build on a successful regular season when it begins postseason play this weekend at the 2004 Southeastern Conference Championship in St. Simon’s Island, Ga. The three-day 54-hole tournament will be contested at the Sea Island Golf Club’s par-70, 6,898-yard Seaside Course.

The Gamecocks are coming off of an eighth-place finish at the Augusta State Invitational to close out their spring schedule. That finish followed a run of three-straight top-three placements late in the spring. Included in that span was the school-record-tying third team championship of the year on March 16 at the Palmetto Intercollegiate, with a 5-under-par, score of 847.

A year ago at the SEC Championship, South Carolina recorded the fifth top-five finish in school history at the event with a fifth-place showing. The top finish for the Gamecocks at the SEC Championship came in 1998, when USC placed second behind team champion Georgia.

Leading the way for South Carolina this year will be sophomore Eirik Johansen. The sophomore All-SEC candidate leads the team with a 72.35 scoring average and has recorded six top-10 finishes and eight top-20 placements in 11 tournaments this year. Included in that was his first collegiate victory at the Palmetto Collegiate, with a 54-hole score of 9-under-par, 204.

Joining Johansen at the top of the Gamecock lineup is junior Martin Rominger, whose top finish of the year came in the fall at the Ridges Intercollegiate, where he tied for second place in a strong field with a 6-under-par score of 210. Rominger, an All-SEC candidate is second on the team with a 72.45 scoring average and has four top-10 finishes and seven top-20 results this year.

The third member of the South Carolina contingent will be junior All-SEC candidate Alex Hamilton, who has been one of the Gamecocks’ most consistent performers late in the year. Hamilton ranks third on the team with a 73.34 scoring average and notched back-to-back tenth-place finishes at the Schenkel E-Z-GO Invitational and the Atlanta Intercollegiate in March.

The final two individuals in the field for South Carolina will be junior Jake Thompson and sophomore West Streib. Thompson has competed in every tournament this spring for the Gamecocks and is fifth on the team with a 74.09 stroke average, while Streib will be making his fourth appearance of the year for USC.

The Gamecocks will begin play at the SEC Championship at 8:50 a.m. on Friday in threesomes with Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. Full results and live scoring of the tournament will be available at www.secsports.com.