Sept. 23, 2010

Tournament Notes | Golfstat Live Scoring

By Wes Todd
Assistant Media Relations Director

COLUMBIA, S.C. – On a golf course that has been kind to the South Carolina men’s golf team for the last two years, the Gamecocks will look to make it three great performances in a row at the Mason Rudolph Championship, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tenn. The Legends Club South Course will be set up to play at par 71, 7,100 yards.

The South Carolina starting lineup for this week’s event features three true freshmen, one sophomore and one junior, only one of which has more than three collegiate tournaments to his credit. Junior Wesley Bryan (Chapin, S.C.) leads the way for Carolina, along with sophomore Dean Hester (Dublin, Ga.). Bryan has played in every event in his two-plus years as a Gamecock, and Hester played in two tournaments as an individual last year before starting in the season-opening Carpet Capital Collegiate.

Three true freshmen round out the lineup with Blaine Woodruff (Acworth, Ga.) and Logan Harrell (Huntersville, N.C.) returning after strong debuts at the Carpet Capital Collegiate, and Caulder Moore (Isle of Palms, S.C.) makes his collegiate debut this week.

Bryan is the only Gamecock in this week’s lineup to have competed at this event before. Last year, he tied for 30th place with rounds of 71-72=143 (+1), and in 2008 he posted consecutive rounds of 69 to offset an opening 79 and finish in a tie for 23rd place.

Last season at this event, South Carolina fired a final-round 282 (-2) to finish at 556 (-12) and tied with Middle Tennessee State for first place at the rain-shortened Mason Rudolph Invitational, but fell to the Blue Raiders in a sudden-death playoff for the tournament title. Senior Patrick Rada led the team for the second straight week, turning in rounds of 67-69=136 (-6) to finish in a tie for second place overall, a career-best showing. Clint Tolleson tied for 10th place in just his second collegiate tournament.

This is the fourth time for South Carolina to play in this event in its 10-year history, and each of the previous three trips to the Nashville area have proven successful for the Gamecocks. In 2003, the Gamecocks finished third out of 18 teams with a 36-hole score of 290-290=580 (+12), three strokes behind runner-up Texas A&M. Martin Rominger and Eirik Johansen posted top-10 finishes to lead Carolina.

Two years ago, the Gamecocks claimed their first team title in 14 tournaments as they posted rounds of 281-280-278=839 (-13) to claim an eight-stroke victory over Kentucky at the 2008 Mason Rudolph Championship. This time, three Gamecocks finished in the top 10 as Mark Silvers, George Bryan IV and Patrick Rada led the way for South Carolina.

The Gamecocks will be paired with Memphis and Middle Tennessee State for the first round, with tee times for those teams set to begin at 9:50 a.m. ET. Live scoring is available through golfstatresults.com.