March 28, 2009

AWENDAW, S.C. – Coming off a huge tournament victory and being honored as Golfweek’s National Team of the Week, the 10th-ranked South Carolina men’s golf team heads to the Lowcountry for the annual Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate, which begins Sunday at Bulls Bay Golf Club.

South Carolina will send out the same lineup that captured last weekend’s Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational in Columbus, Ga., giving the Gamecocks their third tournament victory of the season. Senior Mark Silvers III, juniors George Bryan IV and Patrick Rada, and freshmen Wesley Bryan and Sam Braver will look to keep the momentum going on a course that the Gamecock team loves to play.

Silvers has plenty of reason to like the layout at Bulls Bay. A tie for 14th-place last year started a late-season run for the Savannah, Ga., native that saw him grab top-10 finishes in his next two events, including a 7th-place finish at the SEC Championship. The senior carries a 73.44 stroke average this season – the team leader among those playing in more than half the tournaments – and has three top-10 finishes in six events this year. Those included a tie for third at the General Hackler Invitational, fourth place at the Mason Rudolph and seventh place at the Rees Jones Intercollegiate – the latter two of which were Gamecock team victories.

Bryan IV brings a lot of momentum to Bulls Bay after his second-place finish at the Schenkel E-Z-Go last week that included a final-round 68, the best final round in Bryan’s collegiate career, to finish 4-under for the weekend. In two previous appearances at the Hootie, Bryan turned in a 24th-place finish at even par 216 in 2008 and an 11th-place finish as a freshman in 2007 at 5-under.

Braver also looks to continue his momentum after turning in an even-par 216 last weekend in his first collegiate appearance. The native of Roswell, Ga., earned a spot in the lineup for the second-straight week after his tie for 11th-place at the Schenkel. Wesley Bryan will also be making his first appearance in this event, as will Patrick Rada.

Several teams very familiar with the Gamecocks will be competing alongside Carolina in the event, including archrival Clemson, who is currently ranked No. 5 by Golfweek and leads the field this weekend. Also competing will be No. 15 UCF, No. 22 NC State, No. 23 LSU, No. 24 Wake Forest, No. 30 Chattanooga, No. 46 Georgia State, No. 48 Kentucky, No. 49 Augusta State, College of Charleston, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina-Aiken and Virginia.

The teams will enjoy a concert by Hootie and the Blowfish on Saturday night in Charleston before tournament play begins Sunday morning. Tee times have not been set as of midday Saturday, but they will be posted on golfstat.com as they become available. Live results will also be available through golfstat.com.