University of Tennessee Athletics
Vol Golfers to Compete in Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship
February 16, 2002 | Men's Golf
Feb. 16, 2002
The eighth-ranked Tennessee men's golf team will be competing in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship, on Feb. 18-19. The tournament will be held at Sawgrass Country Club (par 72, 6,895 yards) in Jacksonville, Fla.
Tennessee is coming off its second team championship of the season. The Vols won the Rice Intercollegiate with scores of 291-290-862 (2-under par). UT's other championship came in October, when they won the Coca-Cola Tournament of Champions at Cherokee Country Club. The Vols' two team titles this season marks the first time a Tennessee team has done this since the 1987 season. That year the Vols won the South Florida Invitational and the Springbrook Intercollegiate.
The field for this year's tournament includes six teams ranked in Golfweek's Top 25, including No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Texas, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 18 South Carolina and No. 24 Augusta State. Other teams the Vols will be competing against are host school North Florida, Florida State, LSU, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke and Georgia State.
Head coach Jim Kelson is excited about taking his team to this tournament and competing against a quality field at an outstanding golf course.
"This is unquestionably one of the finest tournaments we will compete in this season," Kelson said. The quality of the field is outstanding and the course is very challenging. I hope we can take positives from last week and use them in this upcoming tournament."
Kelson will use the same five golfers that competed in the Rice Intercollegiate. He will field seniors Andrew Black and Jimmy White, juniors Ian Parnaby and Andrew Pratt and freshman David Skinns.
Tennessee competed in this tournament last year, finishing seventh of 15 teams. The Vols fired scores of 284-299-290--872.
Players Mentioned
