Oct. 10, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s golf team enters its third tournament of the fall season on Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 11-12) at The Firestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club’s North Course in Akron, Ohio.
The 54-hole tournament will be broken up into two days with the first 36 holes to be played on Monday and the final 18 set for Tuesday. The world-renowned North Course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, opened in 1969 and has been rated by Golf Digest as one of Ohio’s top-10 courses. It plays as a par 72, spanning 7,060 yards.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Firestone,” Irish head coach Jim Kubinski says. “There’s so much history there. The South Course is most famous of the three courses, but the North – our competition site this week – is also a great test. It has hosted the PGA TOUR in the past, most recently at the 1994 World Series of Golf. I love to see our guys playing championship caliber courses and Firestone North earns that label. It’ll test our game through the bag, which is something I also like to see. I know our guys are excited to get back after it following two near misses to start the season.”
This marks the first time that the Irish are competing in the Firestone Invitational and the team will feature the same lineup that played at the Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic (FIGGC) two weeks ago, which includes senior Connor Alan-Lee (Solana Beach, Calif.), juniors Max Scodro (Chicago, Ill.), Tom Usher (Bradford, England) and Chris Walker (The Woodlands, Texas) as well as freshman Niall Platt (Santa Barbara, Calif.). Freshman Andrew Lane (Fairport, N.Y.) also will compete at the Firestone Invitational as an individual entrant.
“I feel this lineup should be well suited for Firestone,” Kubinski states. “We’ll also have freshman Andrew Lane competing as an individual. I’m excited for Andrew, as this will be his first road competition. He has made enough birdies the last couple of weeks. It’s just a matter of gaining experience at this level and showing a little more consistency within his rounds. He’s a talented young player though and one we’ll count on in our lineup at some point along the way.”
THE COMPETITION: The Firestone Invitational will be made up of a 13-team field, including (Golfstat rankings from 10.6.10 in parentheses): Akron (126), Eastern Michigan (125), Illinois State (133), Indiana (36), Iowa State (72), Kansas State (145), Maryland (104), New Mexico State (37), Notre Dame (34), St. Mary’s College, Toledo (131), Wichita State (146) and Xavier (39).
Kubinski on the 2010 Firestone Invitational…
“Akron’s event has a very good mix of teams, with several conferences represented. It’s still so early on in our season that I don’t consider rankings too seriously. I’m confident there are several teams that can string together 54 solid holes, so we’ll need to play solidly throughout. Our team will set a goal of grinding out 54 holes this week.”
FORMAT: Each team’s lineup will be comprised of five golfers with the lowest four scores for each round counting towards the overall team score. The tournament will span two days (Monday-Tuesday, Oct. 11-12) with the first 36 holes being played on Monday and the final 18 holes coming on Tuesday. The opening round on Monday will consist of a shotgun start at 9 a.m. with continuous play for round two following the conclusion of round one. The final round will be made up of split-tee starts from #1/#10 based on team’s 36-hole standings.
RESULTS: Live hole-by-hole scoring of the Firestone Invitational will be available through Golfstat. To access the site go to http://www.golfstatresults.com. Daily recaps and standings of the Irish at the Firestone Invitational will be posted on und.com.
–ND–