March 11, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s men’s golf team, ranked ninth in the nation by GolfStat, will begin a stretch of four tournaments in four weeks on Friday as they travel to the Seminole Intercollegiate, hosted by Florida State at Southwood Golf Club in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Gamecocks will send out their usual lineup of seniors George Bryan IV, Patrick Rada and Paul Woodbury along with sophomore Wesley Bryan and redshirt freshmen Clint Tolleson for this week’s event. Also, for the second straight tournament, freshman Dean Hester will accompany the team to Tallahassee and compete in the tournament as an individual. Both Bryan brothers and Rada are ranked in the nation’s top 100 according to the latest GolfWeek rankings.

Last time out, the Gamecocks earned a second-place finish at the rain-shortened Seahawk Intercollegiate in Wilmington, N.C. It marks the fourth time in five tournaments this season that South Carolina finished in the top five of an event. It marks the 12th top-5 finish since the beginning of last season, which ties for second among SEC schools in that same stretch.

Wesley Bryan looks to continue his streak of strong showings as he has been on a tear in his last three tournaments, earning three consecutive top-10 finishes. He picked up a season-best sixth-place finish earlier this month at the Seahawk Intercollegiate, which followed a seventh-place showing at the prestigious Isleworth Collegiate Invitational and a ninth-place finish at the Rees Jones Intercollegiate, both of which were held in October.

Host Florida State is ranked No. 8 in the latest GolfWeek ratings, leading the field at this week’s event. The Gamecocks will face three other SEC foes in No. 46 Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. The rest of the field consists of No. 38 Baylor, Cincinnati, George Mason, Georgia State, Mercer, North Carolina, North Texas, Troy and Western Carolina.

The Gamecocks will be paired with the host Seminoles and the Tar Heels for Friday’s first round, with the first Carolina tee time set for 8 a.m. Live scoring will be available through golfstat.com.