2011 Recruit McCarty Wins Again

For the third time in 2 months, 2011 recruit Colin McCarty, has won a tournament.  The latest being a contest between the Arizona Junior All-Stars and an All-Star team from South Korea.  Colin bested the field with rounds of 68 and 70 to win medalist honors and help the Arizona team to the dual victory.  Congratulations Colin!

Coach Brown

Finishing up the fall semester

We have just two weeks left of classes before everyone is off for our Holiday Break.  This will be our last week of actual classes with finals coming the week after.  As always, we strive for the best team GPA in athletics and this semester our goal is no different.  We believe that success starts in the classroom and I have seen the guys really believing in that this past year.

Congratulations to Nick Nuzzo, who recently accepted an internship with the Troy Chamber of Commerce, where he will work with every detail of advertising!

Think warm-

Coach

2011 Recruiting Class

Our 2011 class has been officially released on www.siuecougars.com if you would like to read more about our incoming class.  Again, I am very excited about this class and am excited about our future here at SIUE.

Here are some articles about the class:

http://www.siuecougars.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/111710aaa.html
http://www.svherald.com/content/sports/2010/11/12/mccarty-follows-older-brother-s-footsteps-after-all
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/yb/151176283
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2010/09/21/sports/doc4c9832a888298562304688.txt

Taylor White- 2009 Class A South Dakota State Champion

I am excited to announce that Taylor White of Dakota Dunes, SD has signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Cougars next season.  Taylor is the 2009 Class A state champion in South Dakota and was runner up in 2010.  He has a great golf swing and has a lot of potential that will help us reach our team goals of competing for an OVC championship.  Here are some of Taylor's accomplishments.

• 2009 Class A State High School Champion in South Dakota
• 2010 Class A State High School Runner up in South Dakota
• Currently ranked 1st in the National Junior Golf Scoreboard and AJGA ranking for all of South Dakota
• Finished 4th at the AJGA Scissortail Junior Championship in Oklahoma with rounds of 71-66-81
• Finished 18th/102 at the AJGA Junior at the Quad Cities- 75-74-74
• Qualified for the 2008 and 2010 U.S Junior Amateur Championships 
• Finished 12th at the AJGA Kansas City shooting 70-76-76
• Won the 2010 Big Sioux Conference shooting 65

I am thrilled to add Taylor to this recruiting class!  Taylor is a great athlete who also played football, hockey and is a state champion in the 4x400 relay.

Colin McCarty- 2010 Arizona Division 1 State Champion

I am proud to announce we have received our second NLI of the November signing period from the Arizona Division 1 state champion, Colin McCarty.  Colin is a guy who has shown the ability to shoot low numbers while remaining very consistent.  Colin is coming off a two week stretch where he shot 65-71 (-8) to win Arizona's biggest division at the state tournament and a tie for first place at the FWCT event held at ASU Karsten Creek shooting 74-67.  Here are some accomplishments by the incoming 2011 freshman:

• 2010 Division 1 Arizona State Champion- 65-71
• 2010 high school scoring average of 35.6
• Was Medalist in 7 events this fall
• 2010 Sierra Vista Open Champion- 67-70
• T-1st place at FWCT ASU Tournament- 74-67
• 2nd place in the 2010 JGAA Antigua/Milt Coggins AZ Junior Stroke Play- 66-68-73
• 5th place in the 2010 Phoenix City Junior Championship- 71-71
• Was part of the Junior Golf Association of Arizona State Team 
• 2010 National Big I Qualifier

We are all excited to welcome Colin to the Cougar golf family!

Mitchell Homb- 2010 Illinois 2A State Champion

I am proud to announce our first signing of the November signing period, Mitchell Homb.  Mitchell is coming off an impressive back nine 33 to win the 2A Illinois High School State Championship by two shots.  He also finished 4th as a junior and 11th as a sophomore at the state meet. Here are some accomplishments by the future Cougar!

• Is currently ranked 4th in the state of Illinois by AJGA and 5th by National Junior Golf Scoreboard
• 2010 State 2A Illinois State High School Champion
• Broke the Dixon High School scoring average this year by posting a 36.4 average. 
• Won the 2010 Regional by shooting 70
• Was 3rd in the 2010 Sectional shooting 74
• Won the 2007 Regional as a freshman shooting 74
• Won the 2009 Sectional golf tournament
• Finished 3rd in the AJGA Junior at the Quad Cities-71-73-72
• Finished 11th at the AJGA at Rush Creek
• Was player of the year in the Northern Illinois Big 12 conference two times

We are very excited to welcome Mitchell and I look forward to coaching him the next four years!

Signing Week!

After a week off from workouts and practice, we are back at it today.  Workouts started today and with 75 degree temps outside we couldn't ask for much more.  Signing week officially begins tomorrow and I will be here to let you know about each SIUE recruit as soon as I can comment on them.  This will be another exciting week for SIUE golf as the NLI's start rolling in!

Coach Brown

3rd Place at the SIUE Doubletree Intercollegiate

We finished in 3rd place this past Monday and Tuesday at our home event held at Sunset Hills CC.  Behind freshman Taylor Cox's 72 we shot the low round of the day on Tuesday.  Taylor finished his round today by making eagle on the Par 4 7th hole and making birdie on his last hole of the day, hole 8.

Individually, Neal McCarty posted his second straight top 10 by finishing 2nd overall with a three round total of 220 (75-70-75).  This is Neal's 7th top 5 finish of his SIUE career.  Following Neal was Nick Nuzzo who got 12th place that was highlighted by an opening round of 73.

We are off until February 21 when we head to Phoenix for the Snowman Washington State Invitational.  Our off season will consist of more weight training and conditioning, while working on our game as much as possible.  It was very nice to end the fall on such a positive round and I am confident that it will spring us right into the spring season!

I will be updating the Birdie Pledge this week and will start sending out the invoices soon.  I really appreciate all of the support that we have had this year from family, friends and our alumni!

Coach Brown

SIUE Intercollegiate Presented by Doubletree Hotels

This coming Monday and Tuesday we are hosting our first home event in 3 years as 8 division I golf teams are scheduled to compete at our home golf course, Sunset Hills Country Club.  Teams competing are SIUE, Missouri State, South Dakota, North Dakota, Eastern Illinois, SIU-Carbondale, Chicago State and Tennessee State. 

I have been keeping my eye on the weather for about 10 days and the forecast is getting better every day.  It looks like we may get a little rain tomorrow for the practice round, but Monday and Tuesday look pretty dry and warm! 

We will be sticking with the same starting lineup as we have had for the last two tournaments.  It will look like this:

1. Neal McCarty
2. Grant Wynia
3. Taylor Cox
4. Nick Nuzzo
5. Alex Knoll

We will be starting on holes 1-5 on Monday morning with a 8:15 shotgun start.  Remember that there is no admission charge and we would love all support on Monday and Tuesday as we want to close our fall season strong. 

We are coming off some great scores at last week's Austin Peay Intercollegiate where senior Neal McCarty shot a 10 under par 206 to get 6th place.  As a team we had 6 individual rounds under par as Freshman Taylor Cox shot a pair of 1 under par 71's and Freshman Grant Wynia also shot a first round 71.  I am checking the record books, but our first round 286 is the lowest round an SIUE team has shot in at least 4 years! 

Thanks again for the support and hope to see you out at Sunset Hills this week.

Coach Brown

Some well needed rest and the Austin Peay Intercollegiate

After some tough courses and weather conditions we were happy to be back in Edwardsville with a week off from competition.  We are in the middle of a couple great weeks of practice that have included qualifying and some inter-squad Ryder Cup competitions.  We have one more 18 hole qualifier this Friday, so I do not have our starting lineups for Austin Peay available. 

The Austin Peay Intercollegiate will feature all of the Ohio Valley Conference teams and in some way serves as an OVC preview for the fall.  The field consists of the following teams:  Samford, UT-Martin, Austin Peay, Jacksonville St, Tennessee Tech, Oakland, Murray State, Towson, Eastern Kentucky, SIUE, Belmont, Morehead St, Tennessee St, Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Troy and Bowling Green. 

I have updated the Pledge for Birdie section to show how many birdies we have been making in our tournaments.  Thanks again for the support!!

Coach Brown

D.A Weibring Intercollegiate

It is nice to be inside after a very windy and cold day here in Normal, IL.  We fought hard and played much better in our second round to help us climb the leaderboard.  We have four of our guys to finish 1 hole tomorrow before we go back out and play our last round.  We are currently sitting in 13th out of 18 after round one and we are hoping our second round score will move us up in the standings.  Leading the way in the first round was Alex Knoll who shot 79.  I will update the final results as soon as I can tomorrow or Monday. 

Think Warm!

Coach

Depaul Invitational

Well after a rough week last week at the Kansas Invitational, we are back and ready to improve this week.  We had a few bright spots last week as Neal had a great first round of 69 and had some good rounds turned in by our two freshman, Taylor and Grant.  We just finished our practice round at the course that is hosting us this week, Ruffled Feathers.  What a great course!  We hit the ball pretty well this afternoon and I am sure looking forward to playing tomorrow.  This week our starting lineup is:
1. Neal McCarty
2. Taylor Cox
3. Grant Wynia
4. Tony Ross
5. Alex Knoll

It will be a tough field this weekend with Depaul, Florida Gulf Coast, South Florida, SIUE, SIU-Carbondale, Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Loyola-Chicago, Bradley, Northern Iowa, IUPUI, Detroit and Oakland.  Thanks for reading and your support of SIUE Men's Golf!!

Kansas Jayhawk Invitational

We are finally getting the season underway this coming Monday and Tuesday in Lawrence, KS at the Jayhawk Invitational.  We have itching to play as most of our surrounding competition started last week.  Qualifying officially ended yesterday and we are going young our first tournament as we are starting 2 Seniors, 1 Sophomore and 2 Freshman.  This will be a great opportunity for us to find out where we are to start the year and what we need to work on moving forward.  The field has shaped up to be a good one with 3 Big 12 teams at the Invite (Kansas, Nebraska and Kansas State).  The rest of the field looks like this: Creighton, Jacksonville University, Missouri State, UMKC, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Monroe, Drake, South Dakota State, Oral Roberts, Western Kentucky and Oklahoma City. 

Here is the SIUE starting lineup for the Kansas Jayhawk Invitational
1. Neal McCarty -SR
2. Nick Nuzzo- SR
3. Grant Wynia- FR
4. Taylor Cox- FR
5. Clark Schmidt- SO

Anxious to play

The guys are getting pretty anxious to play and so am I.  We are finishing our last qualifier this week for our upcoming trip to Lawrence, KS for the Jayhawk Invitational.  Like last year, I will update as best I can after each round with results and feedback from myself on how the day went.  We are confident going into this season that we have a team that will compete throughout the tournament. 

I will be sending out Pledge for Birdie letters this week and look forward to your continued help with SIUE golf.  If you would like to learn more about the Pledge for Birdie fundraiser you may contact me at derbrow@siue.edu.  Thanks!

Coach Brown

The Season Is Underway

I hope everyone had a great summer and are back to follow the SIUE Cougar golf team!  We are off to a fast start with school starting last week and getting our feet under us.  We had a great first week of practice and I can see a lot of potential from our guys. 

This past Saturday the SIUE Athletic Department hosted a fund-raising golf scramble at our home course, Sunset Hills Country Club.  It was a great success with over 275 players enjoying the double shotgun tournament.  For all that did play it was great to meet and chat with you about SIUE athletics and our golf program here.  From the Men's Golf Team and the whole athletic department we say thanks to all who came out and supported us.  I personally would like to thank the following who donated their entry fee directly to the men's program:  Harry Gallatin and family, Les Agne, Tim Gehrig, Jay Eihausen, Brooks Brestal and to Mike Knoll and Quaker Window Products. 

Qualifying started yesterday and we are excited for our year to start!  Below is our tournament schedule for everyone to follow. 

September 20-21- Kansas Jayhawk Invitational
September 25-26- Depaul Invitational
October 2-3- D.A Weibring Invitational hosted by Illinois State
October 18-19- Austin Peay Invitational
October 25-26- SIUE Intercollegiate presented by DoubleTree Hotels
February 21-22- Snowman Getaway hosted by Washington State
April 4-5- Missouri State Invitational
April 11-12 Red Wolves Classic Hosted by Arkansas State
April 16-17 Ball State Invitational

Summer Months

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated the blog but I have been just as busy as I am during season with scheduling, recruiting and preparing for next season.  I have heard many good things from our guys on how well they are playing this summer which just gets me more ready for August to get here.  I tell the guys that the best way to get better is playing in tournaments and they have been playing in a lot.  Tony Ross was very close after shooting 71 to moving on in his U.S open qualifier.  Alex Knoll has qualified for the Missouri Am after shooting 71 early last week and Alex has even competed in a pro tournament on the Hooters Tour this summer.  As I am writing this, Neal McCarty is getting ready to compete in a the very prestigious Southwestern Am field.  This tournament is held this year outside San Diego and has several former and current Division 1 golfers.  Also not to be left out is a 67 shot by Nick Nuzzo at a local charity event.  Nick will also be trying to qualify for Hooters Tour event this summer.  With all this experience coming back, we are very excited for next season.  I am close to finalizing the fall schedule and when it is 100% complete I will post it here.  I do know that we will be opening the season at the University of Kansas Jayhawk Invitational. 

I hope everyone is having a great summer and I wanted to let everyone know that through the Pledge for Birdies campaign we have raised over $4,000!  Thanks again to everyone.

Coach Brown

Grant Wynia Signs With SIUE

We have signed our second student-athlete for next year.  Grant Wynia, of Sioux Falls, SD, is the second high school state champion to sign to be part of our 2010-11 recruiting class.  Grant shot 73-74 in awful late fall weather conditions at Westward Ho Country Club to win the state individual crown.  His Roosevelt Rough Riders also captured the state team crown last year.  He was named first team all-state and academic all-conference.  His great fall season also saw a pair of runner up finishes at the GDC conference meet and at the Yankton Invitational.  Grant will be a very good player for us and we are very excited for him to add to our depth next year. He is also a great student who is a great person on and off the golf course.

Grant was also a 2 year starter for the Boys Basketball team at Roosevelt.  His older brother Adam, was a two time all conference player at Belmont University and his other brother, Brian, is a Sophomore golfer at South Dakota State.  We are excited to have Grant join us next year!

Coach Brown

A Great Experience

We have returned from the Crooked Stick Invitational and it was fantastic.  We wish we could have played better, but with such a strong field, we are happy with our top ten finish.  Our last round was highlighted by a 73 by Nick Nuzzo, who started 3 over after 5 holes and played the rest of the course 1 under par.  Another big step for us was beating a big ten school the last round of the tournament.  We clipped Wisconsin by 2 strokes the last 18 holes.  This is a great sign for things to come at SIUE!

Crooked Stick Invitational....Follow us on Golfstat Live again

I have received our team information for this coming tournament at Crooked Stick and what a great field.  The teams participating are: Indiana, Wisconsin, Middle Tennessee, Wichita State, Ball State, Purdue, Minnesota, Xavier, Illinois, IUPUI, Butler and SIUE. This tournament will also be on Golfstat Live againthis week. We are having our last qualifier of the year today to see who will be playing in our five spot this week at Indiana.

We have had a great year and hope we can play well this week to top it off.  We have moved to our highest ranking on Golfstat and currently have the number 1 individual scoring average in the conference, Neal McCarty 72.3.  We have had an individual in the top 5 in four straight tournaments this spring and have had two team top 5 finishes as well.  The hard work is really paying off!

I have sent out information to all of our Pledge for Birdies supporters on how their pledge turned out.  In the 8 tournaments that counted toward the Pledge for Birdies we made 263 birdies!  This money has helped us fill out our schedule for this year and start building a great schedule for next year.  We again want to thank everyone who has supported us this year!

Coach Brown

Another Great Tournament

We are back from Jonesboro and we are excited about our finish.  It was a tough field filled with highly ranked southern schools.  We placed 12th out of 18 teams and this morning moved up 25 places in the rankings because of the strong field.  Neal McCarty again paced us with another great tournament, finishing 3rd with rounds of 68-73-70.  Alex Knoll also had a really good tournament as he placed in the top third of the field with rounds of 74-70-76.  Alex is really starting to play well and hopefully can take it into next week.  I forgot the camera at home this week so I do not have any pictures of the course we played but it was nice and the hospitality was second to none.  Arkansas State really put on a great tournament and hope we can play again next season.  Here are the final results:

	41 Middle Tennessee St.	-6	F	-6	287	289	282	858
2	Central Arkansas	-4	F	+7	285	280	295	860
3	Stephen F. Austin St	-3	F	+1	283	289	289	861
4	Louisiana-LaFayette	E	F	-4	290	290	284	864
5	Illinois State U.	+3	F	E	286	293	288	867
6	Arkansas-Little Rock	+5	F	+5	286	290	293	869
7	UMKC	+7	F	+6	286	291	294	871
8	Austin Peay State U.	+11	F	+4	295	288	292	875
9	Missouri State	+15	F	+11	289	291	299	879
10	Jacksonville St.	+19	F	+15	295	285	303	883
11	Louisiana-Monroe	+24	F	+2	305	293	290	888
12	SIU Edwardsville	+28	F	+11	298	295	299	892
13	Arkansas State U.	+30	F	+14	307	285	302	894
14	Tennessee-Martin	+31	F	+14	306	287	302	895
15	Troy Univ.	+32	F	+18	296	294	306	896
16	Southern Illinois U.	+34	F	+14	298	298	302	898
17	Meridian CC	+36	F	+9	301	302	297	900
18	De Paul University	+42	F	+8	309	301	296	906

Follow us on Golfstat LIVE

I just found out that our next two tournaments will be covered by Golfstat and live results will be posted throughout the day.  To find the scores go to www.golfstat.com and look for live scoring.  The name of the tournament is called ASU RedWolf Intercollegiate.  Our lineup is already up and this is a great way for all of our followers to watch. 

Coach Brown

Neal McCarty takes TSU Individual title

Neal shot a final round 64 to capture a 3 shot win at the Tennessee State Big Blue Intercollegiate.  Neal was 6 under for the tournament with rounds of 70-70-64.  As a team we finished in 6th place out of 15 teams and missed 5th by one shot and only missed 2nd by 6.  We are really starting to play well and we will need to continue to play well as we have our two toughest tournaments of the year coming up.  We had many other accomplishments last week at TSU with Alex Knoll and Nick Nuzzo setting new season lows shooting 72's.  Also, Tom Callahan tied his season and career low at SIUE with a second round 70.  We also had our second hole in one of the year as Clark Schmidt knocked it in for a 1 on Hole 6 during his first round 75.  Clark used a 7 iron from 174.  He was obviously really excited and gave him his second hole in one in the past six months.  Clark also had a hole in one at our home course of Sunset Hills this past fall during a qualifying round!

As we move on to the final two tournaments we are going to see some really good golf teams.  This weekend in Arkansas we will see two teams in the top 50 in the nation and 8 teams ranked in the top 125.  The confirmed teams are: Arkansas State, Ark- Little Rock, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Depaul, Illinois State, Jacksonville State, Louisana-Layfette, Louisana-Monroe, Meridan CC, Middle Tennessee State, UMKC, Missouri State, Stephen F. Austin, SIUE, UT-Martin, Troy. 

Coach Brown

2nd Straight Top 5

We are excited about our second straight top 5 finish last week in Macomb, IL, hosted by Western Illinois.  Neal McCarty placed third overall giving us a top three individual finisher two tournaments in a row, as Clark Schmidt earned that honor last week.

We are now off to Nashville, TN, to compete in the Tennessee State Big Blue Invitational beginning on Monday.  The tournament has moved from last year and will be played on an Arnold Palmer design, King's Creek.  It looks like a great course playing about 6850 and playing as a par 70.  The field looks like this-
Alabama State, Belmont, Dayton, Evansville, John A. Logan, Lipscomb, Murray State, Morehead State, SIUE, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, Texas Pan American, UT Martin and Winston Salem State.

It looks like great weather too!

Coach Brown

Western Illinois Invitational

We have completed the first 2 rounds of the Beu/Mattato Western Illinois Invitational and are currently sitting in 4th place out of 13 teams.  We hit the ball well today, but lost a few shots in some spots where we should not have.  Neal McCarty did have an outstanding day for us shooting 70-67 and is in 2nd place individually.  He is -7 under for the tournament and is 4 shots out of the lead, which is Kyle Peterman of Western Illinois (63-70).  If we go out and play well tomorrow we can move up to second place, which is only 9 shots away.  We are also only 1 shot out of 3rd place.  Here are the day results:

Neal McCarty- 70-67 2nd
Clark Schmidt- 76-76 T-23
Tom Callahan-  75-79 T-30
Tony Ross     -  79-76 T-35
Nick Nuzzo   -  78-85 T-54

1 Western Illinois U.      277  286    563       -13 

2 Eastern Illinois U.      297  291    588       +12 

3 Wisconsin-Green Bay      296  300    596       +20 

4 SIU Edwardsville         299  298    597       +21 

5 North Dakota State       307  298    605       +29 
  Western Ill. Gold        297  308    605       +29 

7 St. Ambrose U.           301  309    610       +34 

8 St. Francis, U of IL     312  304    616       +40 

9 Bradley University       320  303    623       +47 

10 Truman State Univ.      308  324    632       +56 

11 Monmouth College-IL     313  321    634       +58 

12 IUPUI                   331  330    661       +85 

13 Chicago State U.        359  343    702      +126 

4-1 Vs. the OVC this week

Well, we came back from Jacksonville State with a 4-1 record against fellow OVC members this weekend.  Overall, I was pleased with the performance, but feel we could have placed a few spots higher.  Yesterday we did not have our best round, but the guys hung in the best they could and gave us some quality wins. Individually, Clark Schmidt had an outstanding tournament placing in 3rd place in his first collegiate event!  Nick Nuzzo also placed in the top twenty at 19th.  As we move forward with a short week of practice, we will need to work on our games to get ready for next weekends Western Illinois Invitational.  Hopefully the weather holds up for us and we can get a couple of sunny days in Macomb.

Final Results:
Clark Schmidt- 75-74= 149- T-3rd and led the field this weekend in birdies made
Nick Nuzzo- 74-80- 154- T-19
Neal McCarty- 74-81= 155
Alex Knoll- 80-79= 159
Tony Ross- 86-81= 167

Final Team Results:
Jacksonville State- 297-296= 593
Stetson University- 311-291= 602
Armstrong Atlantic- 309-303= 612
St. Johns University- 296-320= 616
SIU Edwardsville- 303- 314= 617
Morehead State- 316- 303- 619
Austin Peay State- 316-313= 629
Tennessee Tech- 322- 307= 629
UT- Martin- 319- 315= 634
Lewis University- 336-306= 642

Cold and Wet

Well, our day was shortened today due to cold and rainy conditions, but we played well.  We currently sit in third place behind St. Johns and host Jacksonville State.  I was proud of the way the guys hung in today with about 11 holes played in a pretty good rain.  Freshman Clark Schmidt rallied with 2 birdies on his last 3 holes to shoot 75.  Nick Nuzzo had four birdies to card a round of 74 and a share of 4th place along with teammate Neal McCarty, who also used 4 birdies to shoot 74.  Alex Knoll was our fourth score today shooting an 80.  Tomorrow we will be teeing off with the leaders and Neal will be head to head in his threesome with two guys ahead of him in the individual standings.  Here are the scores:

Neal McCarty- 38-36=74- T-4th
Nick Nuzzo- 38-36=74- T-4th
Clark Schmidt- 36-39=75- T-5th
Alex Knoll- 40-40=80- T-26
Tony Ross- 46-40=86- T- 48

Team Scores:
St. Johns- 296
Jacksonville State- 297
SIUE- 303
Armstrong Atlantic- 309
Stetson- 311
Austin Peay- 316
Morehead State- 316
UT- Martin- 319
Tennessee Tech- 322
Lewis University- 336

Coach Brown

Jacksonville State Grub-Mart Invitational

After some time off from competition we are back at it again this weekend when we leave for Gadsden, AL, to compete in fellow Ohio Valley Conference member, Jacksonville State's Invitational.  After looking at the weather it looks like we are leaving Edwardsville at just the right time to head back south.  We are playing Silver Lakes GC, which is part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.  We haven't received our pairings yet, but we do know that the confirmed field is SIUE, Jacksonville State, Morehead State, Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech and UT-Martin out of the OVC.  Also in the field is St. John's University, Stetson, High Point, Armstrong Atlantic and Lewis University.

We are in the middle of a 45 hole qualifier this week to determine three spots as we have two players exempt for finishing in the top 25 of the last tournament.  Neal (T-8) and Tony (T-22) have earned their spot for the next tournament.

We are starting our long road trip this weekend as we will compete in tournaments for 5 straight weeks.  We will have to work hard in every event and pay special attention to our academics as we strive to have the best GPA in the department.  I will try and post this weekend during our tournament to let all of our followers know how we are playing.

Coach Brown

Final Samford Results

Well, we have returned home from Alabama to a beautiful day here in Edwardsville where the high today is going to be in the 70's. We showed a little rust in our first tournament out this spring, but had many positives to grow on. Neal McCarty posted his 3rd straight top ten finish of the year and racked up 16 birdies in his 54 holes. I was really pleased with Tony Ross as he competed in his first tournament for SIUE and showed that he has the potential to compete at a very high level. Here were the final numbers.

Samford Intercollegiate
Neal McCarty 72-73-73 218 T-8
Tony Ross 73-74-78 225 T-22
Alex Knoll 80-76-78 234 T-54
Nick Nuzzo 78-78-85 241 T-67
Tom Callahan 91-83-81 255 74

Here are a few pictures of the guys getting ready.  Limestone Springs was a beautiful place.

The season is off and running

Well, we are off and running in our first tournament of the spring season and while we are sitting in 11th place there were many positives to take out of the first round. Tony Ross, who is competing in his first tournament of the year, shot 73-74 in a very consistent day. Neal McCarty birdied 33% percent (12/36) of his holes yesterday, which is great to see in the first tournament. We also had a couple of guys really hold a round together that could have gone bad, but mentally held it together. I told the guys that we had a lot of positives to take out of this first day and that we needed to shake off a little rust. We have only been playing for about a week and a half. The majority of the teams here have played in 1 or 2 tournaments already this spring. Looking ahead to today's round we are only 7 shots out of the top 8 and I believe with a good round today that we can move up the leaderboard.

Individual Scores:
Neal McCarty- 72-73=145- T-11
Tony Ross- 73-74=147- T-18
Alex Knoll- 80-76- 156- T-52
Nick Nuzzo- 78-78= 156- T-52
Tom Callahan- 91-83-174= 75

Coach Brown

Spring Season is starting!

Well, we have been outside for a week and qualifying rounds for our first tournament has started. The guys are starting to get comfortable playing 18 holes again and playing pretty well. I have seen some really good swings although we are struggling to find our short game. We all know that the short game will come back as we are getting more time to practice now. After two rounds Neal McCarty is leading the way with rounds of 72-71.

We are leaving next Sunday to compete in our first tournament of the spring season at the Samford Intercollegiate. The forecast for Oneonta, Al, today shows that the temps are suppose to be in the 60's, but there is a chance of rain. Please continue to follow us here and I will do my best to give updates after each tournament round and throughout the spring season.

Teams confirmed for the Samford Intercollegiate are:
Samford, Vanderbilt, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, Murray State, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Eastern Kentucky, Evansville, Tenn-Martin, Belmont, Birmingham Southern, Houston Baptist, Montevello and SIUE.

Coach Brown

An Unfortunate Injury and Pledge for Birdie News

We learned of some bad news this week when we found out that Matt Lehl will probably miss the rest of the season due to a broken arm and surgery on his shoulder. This is a big loss for our team as Matt was 2nd on the team in scoring average and a great competitor. We hope his recovery goes well so he can pursue his future job as a police officer.

After discussing with some of the guys on the team, we have decided to pick 4 of our 6 tournaments to count for the Birdie Pledge. The four tournaments we have selected will be the first two tournaments in Alabama (Samford and Jacksonville State) along with our Tennessee State tournament in Nashville and our final tournament that will count for our Birdie Pledge is the Arkansas State tournament on April 12-13. After the birdies are tallied I will send out the final invoice for the donation pledged. Last week we had another $1.50 a birdie donated to bring our total to 16.50 a birdie. Again, we want to thank everyone who has donated to our program.

Coach Brown

A great Invite

We have received and accepted an invitation to compete at the famed Crooked Stick GC in Carmel, IN, a tournament hosted by Indiana University. This is a great step for our program to be invited to a tournament with this great field. Some of the teams confirmed are top 30 schools: 11th ranked Illinois and 29th ranked Middle Tennessee State. Also in the field are Big Ten Conference schools Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana. Other schools confirmed are Xavier, Ball State, Wichita State and Butler.

Updated Spring Schedule

Well, we have made some changes and finalized our schedule for this coming spring. We are very excited about it as we have added a 5th tournament and are heading south four times. We are starting the spring season with a trip to Oneonta, AL for a 16 team tournament hosted by Samford University on March 7-9. Some of the confirmed teams are Vanderbilt University, Kennesaw State (both are ranked in the top 100), Murray State, UT-Martin and Belmont. It should be a great test for us to go up against some of the southern schools this early in the year. The tournament will be played at Limestone Springs, which was voted the top place you can play in Alabama in Golfweek Magazine.

Our second tournament of the year will send us back down to Alabama for a tournament hosted by fellow OVC member Jacksonville State on March 21-23. Some confirmed teams at this tournament will be Austin Peay, Stetson, Tennessee Tech and Tennessee-Martin. It will be played at Silver Lakes Golf Course, which is part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. It will be great to get down south for our first couple of tournaments to hopefully get some good weather to play in.

Our third tournament of the spring will be a short drive up to Macomb, IL for a tournament hosted by Western Illinois. It is nice to get into regional tournaments for traveling purposes and to show our support of other Illinois universities. It should be a large field and we will just hope for decent weather as the tournament is being played March 29-30. It could still be a little cold in Macomb at that time.

Our fourth tournament is a repeat tournament from last year as we head down to Tennessee State located in Nashville, TN on April 4-6. They have moved the tournament to a new course this year, King's Creek Golf Club. This is an Arnold Palmer designed course, which are a personal favorite of mine. We do not have any confirmed teams for this tournament yet, but will let everyone know when we get a little closer to that tournament.

Our fifth and final tournament of the year will be a great tournament at Arkansas State on April 11-13. Located in Jonesboro, AR, Ridge Point will be the tournament host and it looks great. I had heard many good things about this tournament from other coaches who said that if you ever get an invite to ASU, make sure you accept. We were lucky enough to get a late invite and thanks to generous donations we were able to go to this fifth tournament of the spring. Some of the confirmed teams here are Louisana-Monroe, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Illinois State and Oral Roberts. This will be a great way to cap off our season.

Think Warm,
Coach Brown

Cougars Excel In The Classroom

Fall grades are out and I can say proudly that we had 3 student-athletes on the Dean's List. Junior Nick Nuzzo and Freshmen Alex Knoll and Clark Schmidt have been named to the Dean's List for Fall Semester 2009. Our team had a team GPA of 3.27, which ranked 2nd among all male sports at SIUE for the fall semester. Hard work in the classroom will continue to be a focal point for our program and this shows that we are heading in the right direction.

Coach Brown