Oct. 23, 2008
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest men's golf team has had its share of ups and downs this fall and is looking to finish on a high note at this weekend's Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at The Ridges in Johnson City, Tenn. The first round is slated to begin on Friday morning with the 54-hole tournament wrapping up on Sunday. The Deacons are coming off a 10th place finish at the Brickyard Collegiate on Oct. 11-13 but that tournament was preceded by one of best performances in school history at the VCU Shootout. Wake carded a school-record and tournament record 15-under 269 in the second round en route to a 16-shot victory at the VCU Shootout. Junior Brendan Gielow fired a career-low 64 in that second round which propelled him to a share of medalist honors. He finished one shot ahead of teammate Dustin Groves, who also carded a career-low 65 in the second round. Gielow and Groves will be joined by junior Travis Wadkins and freshmen Lee Bedford and Daniel Meggs this weekend. Junior Marc Gladson will also play this weekend as an individual. Gielow comes into the BOT Inter., not only with a tournament victory, but with the team's lowest stroke average as well. He is averaging 72.0 strokes over his 12 rounds and he is the only player on the team in which all 12 of his rounds have counted for the team score this season. For the year, Gielow has averaged under-par on the par-3s at 2.98 which is good enough for 44th in country as of Oct. 16. Groves is not far behind Gielow with a stroke average of 73.0 in his 12 rounds. He came out of the gate on fire, leading the Carpet Capital in under-par holes with 16. For the season, Groves is tied for 21st out of over 6,600 golfers in the country with a total of 45 birdies. He has also shown the ability to go low as six of his 12 rounds this season have been at or under par.
Bedford has had an extremely good start to his young career. The Cary, N.C., native has played all 12 rounds this year and has averaged 73.7 strokes per round. He has posted three under par rounds, including a season-low 67 in the opening round of the VCU Shootout, which had him in the lead. Meggs has also played well in his first collegiate season, averaging 74.7 strokes per round. He was the low Deacon at the Brickyard, carding rounds of 70-76-70=216 (+6) to eventually finish tied for ninth. Meggs also finished at 6-over in the season opening Carpet Capital, which saw him shoot his low-round of 1-under 71. Wadkins has been steady so far this season, averaging 74.3 strokes per round over his nine rounds. He has posted two under-par rounds this season and seems as if he is right on the edge of putting together a really good tournament. Gladson has also played in three events, averaging 75.9 strokes in nine rounds. He carded an even-par 71 in the opening round of the VCU Shootout and his best finish came at the Duke Individual last week when he rebounded after a tough first round to post rounds of 73 and 75. The Deacs have played in all 10 BOT Intercollegiates and have posted seven top-ten finishes, including a team title back in 2002. That year, Wake held off North Carolina by two-shots with rounds of 287-294-295 and All-American Bill Haas shared medalist honors with four other players at 1-under par. If Wake wants to a second title, it will have to beat out a strong field. Along with Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio State - all of which are teams making their first-ever appearances in the event - the field features six squads that were ranked in the national preseason Top 25. Some of those highly-ranked squads include ETSU, Tennessee, Ohio State, N.C. State, Mississippi, Auburn and UAB. Individually, players such as last year's champion Chris Paisley of Tennessee and his teammate Robin Wingardh - who won this year's NCAA Preview - as well as preseason All-American Zach Sucher of UAB and the nation's current No. 1-ranked player Matt Hill of N.C. State will be among those in the field. The weather may also be factor early on. The forecasts are calling for rain and highs in the mid-50s for the first round on Friday but mostly cloudy with bits of sun and highs in the mid-60s for Saturday and Sunday. Live scoring of all three rounds can be found on www.golfstat.com |
