April 24, 2014
-THE EVENT
The 2014 ACC Championship, April 25-27, Old North State Club, New London, N.C.
-THE LAYOUT
The Old North State Club was designed by famed golf architect Tom Fazio, and opened for play in 1991. The course itself is named for the historic reference to North Carolina as the “Old North State.” The par 72, 7,102-yard layout has been the longtime host course of the ACC Championship, and is the third-ranked golf course in the state by the North Carolina Golf Panel.
–KUBINSKI ON THE COURSE
“Our team has not been to Old North State Club but I have when I was a member of the Duke team as an assistant coach. It has been 12 years since I was there, and it has been the site of the ACC Championship for many years. Technology has lowered the scores there, guys have more wedges in their hands and are reaching more par 5s. It’s a fun test, and if you are not playing well you will make some bogeys. If you are playing well, looking at scores the last few years teams are going to make birdies, and that’s one thing we have done well this year. We have made our fair share of birdies, so it may fit us very well in that sense.”
-THREE DAYS TO DETERMINE THE LEAGUE CHAMPION
The 54-hole stroke play tournament will be contested over three 18-hole days, and begins with tee times at 8:30 a.m. (ET) on Friday. Based on team scores, pairings will go off every 10 minutes on Saturday and Sunday, with the first wave of times each day also scheduled for 8:30 a.m.
-SOME OF THE NATION’S ELITE IN THE ACC FIELD
Of the 12 teams entered in this weekend’s ACC Championship, four are ranked in the national top 20 of the most recent GolfStat rankings. No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 8 Virginia, No. 12 Virginia Tech and No. 19 Florida State were all within the top 20 classification at the start of the week. Georgia Tech has won five of the last seven ACC team championships dating back to the 2007 season.
-STARTING FOR THE IRISHââ’¬¦
Notre Dame’s starting lineup at this week’s ACC Championship will feature senior tri-captains Niall Platt and Andrew Lane, junior Patrick Grahek, sophomore Cory Sciupider and freshman Matt Rushton.
-TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Results will be posted on the UND Athletic Department Web site (www.UND.com) at the conclusion of each round. Live stats will be available through GolfStat.com.
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – It will be a historic weekend for the University of Notre Dame men’s golf team in New London, N.C., as the Irish are scheduled to take part in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship for the very first time. The tournament will be contested from Friday through Sunday at the Old North State Club, the longtime site of the ACC Championship.
“I am very pleased with the progress this year in terms of having only one senior as a regular starter for us,” Notre Dame head coach Jim Kubinski said. “Seeing that in the fall we seemed to play one very good round but then had a few rounds where we just didn’t play well. To see the last few weeks, both at our tournaments and at home, guys started to string rounds together both individually and as a team. I think it’s a great sign.
“We are going to go into the ACC Championship with that idea that if we play three good rounds we will have an opportunity,” he added. “I don’t think there is any question that our good rounds have been good enough to compete with anyone, we just need to do that more consistently.”
Notre Dame is coming off a four-stroke victory (287-287-292-866) earlier in the week at the Oak Hill Intercollegiate in Rochester, N.Y. The Irish swept the tournament awards after senior tri-captain Niall Platt secured his second career medalist finish, firing a one-under-par 209 (71-66-72) on the famed major championship layout for a three-shot win.
Platt will lead the Irish into their first ACC Championship along with fellow senior captain Andrew Lane, junior Patrick Grahek, sophomore Cory Sciupider and freshman Matt Rushton. It will be the first time Notre Dame has ever competed in a tournament at the Old North State Club.
Despite none of the players having seen the course in the past like many of their ACC counterparts, Kubinski said that past experience on a particular golf course has a tendency to affect all players differently.
“Any player will tell you he would rather have a feel for a golf course after playing it a few times,” Kubinski said. “What changes for us sometimes at the Warren Golf Club is we play it in one condition through most of the year, and then when we host our tournament the conditions are completely different. The greens are often a little firmer and faster. It really does depend on the player.
“More often than not our guys like to see a golf course, and I think we will learn it Thursday during our practice round and get rolling each day,” Kubinski added. “The neat thing is the championship is not a 36-18 format, where your knowledge really needs to show in one day. We will have three days to attack the golf course, and that will help.”
–ND–