Golf Begins Spring in Houston at All-American Intercollegiate Sunday

HUMBLE, Texas – South Carolina kicks off the spring portion of its schedule on Sunday for the fifth consecutive season at the All-American Intercollegiate. Golf begins at 9 a.m. ET with tee times split on both sides of Golf Club of Houston for all three days of the 54-hole event.
 
“We’re excited to get the spring season underway this week,” said head coach Bill McDonald. “The guys have been working hard through some difficult weather at times, and we’ve been able to get a lot of quality practice in still. Our qualifying was competitive and I’m looking forward to seeing how this group responds to tournament situations again.”
 
The talented senior duo of Jamie Wilson and Caleb Proveaux will lead the Gamecocks into competition this week. Both players career scoring averages rank in the top-10 all-time in program history heading into the final semesters of their collegiate careers.
 
Wilson, who finished in the top-20 in four of the team’s five fall events, mans the top spot in the lineup. He led the Gamecocks in virtually every statistical category the first half of the season. Sophomore Ryan Hall is in the No. 2 slot. He won the J.T. Poston Invitational (Sept. 30-Oct. 1) and paced Carolina in the fall finale, taking third at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic (Nov. 1-3). The Knoxville, Tenn., shot 199 (-14) in his victory at Country Club of Sapphire Valley  and 200 (-13) out west in Hawaii – the scores are the two lowest by a Gamecock so far this season.
 
Proveaux is the middle-man in the lineup. His fall was highlighted by back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Graeme McDowell Invitational (Sept. 23-24) and the JT Poston Invitational. Sophomore Harry Corbin and junior Andrew Spiegler round out Carolina’s five. Each played one tournament as an individual in the fall and will be making their season debuts this week in the lineup. Freshman Nick Mayfield will be playing as individual for Carolina.
 
ABOUT THE COURSE
Golf Club of Houston, formerly known as Redstone Golf Club, opened in 2003 with an 18-hole Member Course designed by the Jim Hardy and Peter Jacobson. This 900-acre land was beautifully crafted with Cypress, Live Oak and Pine trees. Since 2003, Golf Club of Houston has hosted the PGA TOUR’s Houston Open with three great years on the Member Course and since 2006 on the newly crafted Tournament Course.
 
Rees Jones and David Toms, the course architects, were instrumental with incorporating a beautiful yet challenging layout designed to test the best players in the world while maintaining a positive experience for players of all skill levels. The golf course provides a sense of serenity and solitude unique for a course that is mere minutes from downtown Houston. It features finely groomed fairways, well-engineered greens and challenging bunkers. It’s one of only 11 courses in the country that host a PGA TOUR event to be open to the public.

TOURNAMENT FIELD
Defending champion Sam Houston State is in the field this week. No. 8 Wake Forest will be the favorite heading in however on paper. The Demon Deacons have a deep, talented squad and are one of the National Championship contenders heading into the spring. No. 32 Houston, the host school, is the only other top-50 program in the latest Golfstat Team Rankings in the field this week alongside Wake and the 30^th-ranked Gamecocks.
 
MCDONALD’S 24
Gamecock head coach Bill McDonald is the winningest coach by tournament victories in school history with 24 wins. The team’s three wins in the spring of the 2018-19 season marked the fourth time the Gamecocks have won three or more times in the same season under his direction (2012-13, 2014-2015, 2015-16, 2018-19). McDonald broke the previous record of nine wins held by Puggy Blackmon (1995-2007) with Carolina’s victory at the Carpet Capital Collegiate in September 2014. His squad captured a school-record five wins during the 2014-15
season. Carolina is still seeking its first win in the 2019-20 campaign.
  
UP NEXT
The Gamecocks will have a brief break in the schedule before teeing it up again at the General Hackler Championship, March 9-10, at Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
 
2020 All-American Intercollegiate Field
1. No. 32 Houston
2. Lamar
3. Little Rock
4. Louisiana
5. Louisiana Tech
6. Middle Tennessee
7. Rice
8. Sam Houston State
9. No. 30 South Carolina
10. Texas State
11. ULM
12. UT Arlington
13. UTSA
14. No. 8 Wake Forest
 
2020 All-American Intercollegiate Gamecock Lineup
1. Jamie Wilson
2. Ryan Hall
3. Caleb Proveaux  
4. Harry Corbin
5. Andrew Spiegler
 
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