July 25, 2017

By Leigh Torbin

NOTRE DAME, Ind. The 2017-18 Notre Dame men’s golf schedule, unveiled on Tuesday, is highlighted by Oct. 8-9 as dates to hold for the team’s lone home appearance.

The Irish will play in 10 events this upcoming regular season in preparation for the challenge of the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship which returns this year to the Old North State Club in New London, North Carolina, April 20-22. The ferociously competitive ACC sent eight of its 12 teams to NCAA Regionals last May with five teams advancing on to the NCAA Championships.

“The schedule is improved from last year with more competitive tournament fields that will help prepare our team for ACC’s and the post season,” new Irish head coach John Handrigan said. “The schedule will challenge our players as they will compete against some of the elite programs in the country.”

The Fighting Irish Classic will be contested on Oct. 8-9 at Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course, which will later serve as the site of the 2019 U.S. Senior Open. Last fall, the Irish were second out of 15 teams in their major home event with graduated senior Blake Barens claiming individual medalist honors. The Irish won the event in 2009 and shared the title in 2015 with St. Mary’s (Calif.). Notre Dame will play the remainder of its 2017-18 slate in southern and western locales, ranging from California to Florida, including events hosted by four 2017 NCAA qualifiers in Clemson, College of Charleston, Georgia Southern and Stanford.

The Irish return five of the seven players who appeared in at least 16 competitive rounds last season. Notre Dame welcomes back three golfers who claimed an individual medalist honor: Ben Albin (Georgetown Intercollegiate), Kevin Conners (Battle at the Warren) and John Felitto (Notre Dame Kickoff Challenge) along with lineup regulars Davis Lamb (25 events), Miguel Delgado (22) and Hunter Ostrom (16).

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Leigh Torbin, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2013. A native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Torbin graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management. He has previously worked full-time on the athletic communications staffs at Vanderbilt, Florida, Connecticut and UCF.