On behalf of the Men's Golf Team at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, I would like to thank everyone is has taken part in our Pledge for Birdies program. Your donation has allowed us to purchase some more equipment, while offsetting many travel costs.

This fall the Pledge for Birdies campaign produced many great donations to the men's program, and we have received many great pledged to make our birdies worth $15.00. At the halfway point of our season, we have made 107 birdies. We are going to play in the same amount of tournaments in the spring and hope that we can make as many birdies in the spring. If we meet our goal of 200 birdies for the season, we will have brought in $3,000 from this effort. We have also received many generous donations aside from the Birdies Pledge resulting in an additional $1,500 for our program. We are all very excited about how this first year has produced such great results and support from our family and friends.

We have had many highlights throughout the fall including two top ten finishes as a team at Murray State and the Austin Peay Intercollegiate. Neal McCarty has had two top-ten individual finishes, and Matt Lehl has produced one top-ten finish. At the mid-point of our season Neal is ranked 10th (73.09) in the conference scoring average, and Matt is ranked 22nd (74.09). We have seen very consistent play from Tom Callahan who finished the year with a bogey free round of 70 that included a chip in on the last hole for birdie. That chip in was important as we ended up beating Northern Illinois and Tennessee Tech by one shot. Nick Nuzzo has shown at a couple of tournaments that he show up in the clutch by bringing in some much needed scores when we needed him the most. Freshman Alex Knoll has really made an impact, competing in all four events and shooting 75 or under in his first five collegiate rounds. Freshman Clark Schmidt has competed in two events and made his first hole in one during a qualifying round at Sunset Hills CC. Clark hit a 3 iron from 220 yards for his first ace. We are all looking forward to the return this spring of Tony Ross. Tony has been out with a nagging wrist injury that we all hope is healed once the spring season starts. Tony will add some depth to the team and qualifying rounds.

We again thank you for your support. I will try to update this blog as often as possible to keep our family and friends informed on what is going on at SIUE. I will be sending a final invoice with your pledge and the amount of birdies we have made after April 26, 2010. If you donated $1.00 or $3.00 a birdie, please email me at derbrow@siue.edu with the size of shirt you will be receiving for your donation. We hope for your continued support in the future. Have a great holiday season!

Coach Brown