Men’s Golf Central: Lewis Chitengwa Memorial

Monday, April 8

Charlottesville, VA | Birdwood Golf Club

ALL DAY

University of Tennessee

Lewis Chitengwa Memorial - Rounds 1 & 2

April 07, 2024 | Men's Golf

Live Scoring Season Stats

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 7/10 Tennessee men's golf team is set to compete in its final regular season tournament this week, taking part in the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial on Monday and Tuesday.

The tournament consists of three total rounds at Birdwood Golf Course—36 holes of continuous play on Monday and the final 18 holes on Tuesday.

According to the Golfweek/Bushnell Coaches Poll, Tennessee is the highest-rated team in the 13-team field.

The Vols are coming off a fourth-place finish inside a 31-team field at The Goodwin. Lance Simpson and Bryce Lewis led UT after shooting even-par and tying for 11th.

The last time Tennessee played in the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial was the inaugural tournament in 2022, where VFL Spencer Cross captured the individual title and the Vols posted a runner-up finish.

THE VOLS' LINEUP
Jake Hall
Following The Goodwin, Hall now has 65 career rounds of par or better, passing VFL Hunter Wolcott for the fourth-most in program history. Additionally, the redshirt junior holds the best season-stroke average on the team with a 69.71 mark.

Evan Woosley-Reed
Woosley-Reed makes his way back into the five-man lineup for his third tournament of the spring. The sophomore has two top-10 finishes and four top-25 finishes this season alone and enters the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial with a 70.22 stroke average.

Bryce Lewis
Lewis is coming off his 17th career top-15 finish after tying for 11th at The Goodwin. The redshirt senior continues to extend his program-record of career rounds of par or better and currently has 81. Additionally, Lewis is now tied with VFL and five-time PGA Tour winner Jim Gallagher Jr. for the fifth most career rounds in program history (135).

Lance Simpson
Simpson is coming off his best finish of the season following his even-par performance at The Goodwin. The redshirt sophomore currently owns the second-best spring scoring average on the team with a 70.89 mark and enters the final regular season tournament with 10 rounds of par or better.

Bruce Murphy
In his first tournament in the Vols' lineup, Murphy came up clutch. The redshirt freshman shot 4-over in his first two rounds of The Goodwin and recovered nicely in round three with a 1-under 69 that ascended him 10 spots up the leaderboard for a tie for 33rd. Murphy also has an individual crown under his belt after a historic performance at the Wolfpack Individual where he shot a 62 in the final round to win by nine strokes.

THE VOLS' INDIVIDUAL
Josh Hill
Hill is set to compete individually for the Vols. The sophomore has a 72.00 spring stroke average with two top-10 finishes this season.

PARTICIPATING TEAMS (rankings according to Golfweek/Bushnell's Coaches Poll)
No. 7 Tennessee, No. 10 Florida State, No. 12 Virginia, No. 14 Arkansas, Clemson, Liberty, Loyola (Md), Maryland, North Florida, Northwestern, Texas State, Toledo, Virginia (B) and Virginia Tech

About Lewis Chitengwa: Lewis Chitengwa was a two-time All-American at Virginia (1995, 1996) and earned All-ACC honors in1995 when he was named the league's rookie of the year. He finished seventh at the 1996 NCAA Championships, at the time the best finish by a UVA performer in 50 years. During his four-year career he won two tournaments and recorded 17 top-10 finishes. Chitengwa turned professional in 1998 and played on the Tear Drop, Buy.com and Canadian Tours in addition to competing at the PGA's St. Jude Memphis Classic. At the age of 26, he passed away as a result of meningitis. At the time, he was competing in the Canadian Tour's Edmonton Open. In 2015, he was recognized posthumously for his immense contribution to golf by being inducted into Mercedes-Benz Southern African Golf Hall of Fame.

About Birdwood Golf Course: Set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Birdwood Golf Course originally opened in 1984 and was designed by Lindsay Ervin. In 2018 the course underwent a 20-month renovation led by legendary PGA Professional Davis Love III and Love Golf Design. When it reopened in July of 2020, only five holes remain relatively similar to the original course, sharing the same corridors, direction and par as their predecessors. The new course now extends into a previously unused 50 acres of the property. The redesigned Birdwood has drawn rave reviews. Golf Digest ranked it the No. 3 new course in 2021, Golf.com ranked it the No. 7 course in Virginia and GolfLink listed it as the ninth-best college course.

It's Bigger Than Golf: Chitengwa's roommate on the Canadian Tour at the time of his passing in 2001 was Tennessee head coach Brennan Webb. It is a special event for Webb, as Lewis was his roommate on the Canadian Tour when he passed away from viral meningitis when they were competing at a tournament in Edmonton. He was a very special person, who played golf at UVA and touched a lot of people.

"I am very grateful to The University of Virginia and Coach Sargent for honoring Lewis' memory by hosting The Lewis Chitengwa Memorial," said Webb. "It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to share Lewis' story and how special he was as a golfer but more importantly as a person. Lewis' death was a seminal moment in my life and it is great to be able to spend some extra time this week reminiscing about him with those who were closest to him."