April 15, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame and the men’s golf team will play host to the 2002 BIG EAST men’s golf championship this weekend, April 20-21. The 54-hole tournament will be played on the par 71, 6,744-yard Warren Golf Course beginning at 8:00 a.m. both days. The six teams in the tournament will play 36 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday. The tournament champion earns the conference’s automatic bid to the 2002 NCAA Division I Championship.
For the second consecutive 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, stroke differential, overall won-loss record, strength of schedule, results versus common opponents, NCAA/Golfstat rating indexes and additional considerations.
Notre Dame comes into the tournament as the third-seeded team and will be in search of its fourth championship since joining the BIG EAST in 1995. The Irish are led by senior Steve Ratay (Arlington Heights, Ill.) who won a share of the 2001 BIG EAST title when he tied for first with a five-over par 215 total (70-74-71) at Metacomet Country Club in East Providence, R.I. Ratay leads the Irish with a 72.81 average, the top single-season average ever at Notre Dame and has five top-10 finishes this season for the Irish. The Irish have had two top-10 finishes this spring as they were seventh at both the Treasure Cove Classic and the Pepsi-Cola Invitational in March.
Virginia Tech is the tournament’s defending champion and enters the weekend as the top seed. The Hokies are currently ranked 14th in the nation in the April 14 Golfweek.com rankings and have won three tournaments this season. They are led by junior Brendon de Jonge, a native of Zimbabwe, who is currently ranked eighth in the nation while winning the Furman Intercollegiate this spring. He is ranked fourth in District III North and is a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan Award, given annually to the top collegiate golfer. Senior Brian Krusoe returns for his final season and is one of three golfers who tied for the BIG EAST Championship in 2001. Last season, the Hokies won their first BIG EAST title by nine strokes over St. John’s.
St. John’s is the tourney’s number two seed and will be looking for its’ 10th conference title. The Red Storm are ranked third in District II by Golfweek.com and are led by juniors Andrew Svoboda (73.66) and Jesse Fitzgerald (74.03). Svoboda has won three tournaments this season while recording five top-10 finishes for the year. He also owns a share of the 2001 BIG EAST title as he tied Krusoe and Notre Dame’s Steve Ratay for the top honors a year ago. Fitzgerald was a co-winner along with Svoboda at the Anteater Invitational. For the spring, St. John’s owns six top-10 finishes.
The tournament’s fourth seed is Connecticut. The Huskies have had a strong spring and will look for their second BIG EAST crown after winning in 1994. They are led by senior Sean Vigue, who has two top-10 finishes this spring and freshman Mike Murphy, who finished seventh at the Kauai Collegiate Cup in Hawaii. Connecticut was fifth at last weekend’s New England Championships where Vigue tied for third with a five-over par 149.
Seton Hall is the seeded fifth and will be followed by Georgetown as the sixth seed. Seton Hall is ranked 12th in District II and is led by junior Justin Van Hyning, who has a 73.90 average. Van Hyning won the Navy Fall Invitational in September and closed the fall by tying for eighth at the Georgetown Hoya Invitational. Seton Hall’s has two top-10 finishes during the spring – a tie for ninth at the Treasure Coast Classic and a sixth-place finish at William & Mary’s Golden Horseshoe Invitational.
Georgetown rounds out the field of six at this year’s BIG EAST tournament having posted top-10 finishes in its last six outings. The Hoyas are 13th in District II in the Golfweek.com rankings. Sophomore Nick Cook leads the squad with a 74.80 scoring average, while senior Tristian Lewis (76.96) is second on the team. Cook finished fifth at the William & Mary Invitational and seventh at the Xavier Provident Invitational, while Lewis finished fifth at the Georgetown Hoya Invitational. The Hoyas are seeking their second BIG EAST title in the last four years.
The tournament is open to the public.