Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Men's Golf Gears Up For BIG EAST Championship This Weekend

April 25, 2001

Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s golf team will look to extend it’s season when they travel to East Providence, Rhode Island this weekend to participate in the BIG EAST Golf Championship at Metacomet Country Club. On the line for the tournament champion is the BIG EAST’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Championships which begin with regionals the weekend of May 17-19.

The Irish, the tournament’s third-seeded team, will play a practice round on the par 70, 6,464-yard course on Friday, April 27th. The two-day, 54-hole event begins on April 28th at 8:00 a.m. with 36 holes on Saturday, followed by the final 18 holes of play on Sunday, April 29. Notre Dame has won three BIG EAST titles (1995, 1996, 1997) since joining the conference in 1995 while finishing second in 1998 and third last season.

Coach George Thomas’ team heads into the tournament playing its best golf of the spring as it finished in a third place tie in last weekend’s FirstEnergy Intercollegiate tourney at Kent State. The Irish finished the rain-shortened tournament just one stroke out of second after firing a 36-hole total of 585.

The Irish come into the tournament with two of the top players in the BIG EAST in Alex Kent (Sr., Lambare, Paraguay) and Steve Ratay (Jr., Arlington Heights, Ill.). Both played in last year’s BIG EAST Championship. Kent leads the Irish with a 74.00 average for the spring and has a 73.96 average for the entire season. His best finish this season came at the Legends of Indiana Intercollegiate during the fall where he finished fourth with a six-under par total of 210 (67-71-72). Kent has been Notre Dame’s top finisher in three of the team’s five tournaments this spring. He finished fifth in last year’s BIG EAST Tournament with a three-over par 145 (77-68).

Ratay has a 74.31 average for the spring (four more total strokes than Kent, 966-962) and for the year leads the team with a 73.96 average (just one stroke less than Kent – 1,848 to 1,849). Ratay is coming off his best finish of the spring as he tied for second at the FirstEnergy Intercollegiate with a two-over par 142 (72-70). During the fall, he tied for 1st at the Wisconsin Invitational with a four-under 212 (71-70-71). Last season, Ratay finished in a tie for ninth at the BIG EAST Championship with a five-over par total of 147 (70-77) on Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course.

Another Irish golfer with BIG EAST experience is sophomore Kyle Monfort (Dublin, Ohio). He played in the 1998 tournament before sitting out last season. As a freshman, Monfort finished in fourth place with a ten-over par 152 (75-77) at the TPC Course at Avenel. Monfort has a 75.77 average for the season with his best finish coming at the Kepler Intercollegiate at Ohio State where he finished 19th with a 10-over par 226 (74-76-76).

A pair of Texans round out the Notre Dame lineup. Senior Pat Schaffler (Dallas, Tex.) stepped into the lineup in the fall and has given the Irish consistent scoring all season long as 19 of the 22 rounds he’s played have been counted towards the team score. He owns a 76.92 average for the fall and a 76.45 mark for the season in the eight tournaments he’s played.

Sophomore Brandon Lunke (San Antonio, Tex.) saw his first action of the spring last week at Kent State and turned in his best rounds of the season as he tied for fifth with a three-over par 143 (72-71). For the year, Lunke has appeared in five tournaments and has a 76.21 average.

Unlike the past when all conference teams participated in the tournament, only six BIG EAST teams will participate in this year’s tournament. Virginia Tech, making its first appearance in the BIG EAST Championship, is the top seed as the Hokies come into the tournament ranked 22nd nationally and have won a school-record five tournaments this season.

St. John’s is the number two seed and is ranked third in District II in the Mastercard rankings. The Red Storm have won the BIG EAST nine times with the last title coming in 1989. Notre Dame is the third seed and is followed by Rutgers as the four-seed. The Scarlet Knights are ranked fourth in District II and will be looking for their first BIG EAST title. Seton Hall is the defending champion and is seeded fifth in this year’s tournament. The Pirates are led by last year’s individual medalist, Eugene Smith. The Pirates are ranked seventh in District II. Georgetown is seeded sixth and won its only BIG EAST title in 1998.

This season, the BIG EAST has instituted a process in which six teams are selected to participate in the championship. The selection/seeding committee used the following criteria (in no particular order) to select/seed teams: head-to-head results, stoke differential, overall won-loss record, strength of schedule, results vs. common opponents, NCAA/Golfstat rating indexes and additional considerations.