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Sept. 7, 2004

This Weekend
The Tigers head to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Radrick Farms Intercollegiate golf tournament, hosted by the University of Michigan. Friday, September 10 will consist of practice rounds all day and the tournament will be held on Saturday and Sunday, September 11-12.

Tournament Format
The tournament will be 54 holes, 36 to be played on Saturday and 18 on Sunday. Five players from each team will play, with the four lowest scores counting toward the team score.

Tournament Field (14)
Ball State, Colorado State, Georgia State, Indiana, Iowa, Memphis, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, Missouri, Purdue, Rice, UNC-Wilmington, Wisconsin, and Xavier.

About Memphis
The Tigers lost five seniors from last year's squad and have just two this year. One of them is Allan Thomas, who returns after having averaged a 72.7 per round last year, the lowest stroke average of the returning players. The Tigers have just two seniors and two returning juniors on the team but have five freshmen and six newcomers.
Last year, the Tigers finished in eighth place at the Conference USA championships. Thomas was the top returnee finisher, as he placed tied for 28th with a three-round score of 224 (77-76-71).

About the Tournament Field
Ball State: The Cardinals finished fourth out of 10 teams at the Mid-American Conference Championships last spring, 20 strokes behind first-place Toledo, and one shot ahead of fifth-place and future Conference USA member Marshall. BSU had a young team last year, not a single senior on the team, but have three seniors and three juniors this year.

Colorado State: The Rams are coming off one of their most successful seasons ever, as they won five tournaments in 2003-04 and had three individual tournament titles. They finished fifth in the Mountain West Conference, and received a bid to the NCAA West Regional for the ninth consecutive season, the longest such streak for a men's sport at the school. They finished 15th out of 27 teams at the event held in Sunriver, Ore.

Georgia State: The Panthers also had an extremely successful 2003-04 campaign, advancing past the NCAA East Regional and all the way to the final round of the NCAA National Championship, finishing in a tie for 11th place. They finished second at the Atlantic Sun Championship, posted a seventh place finish at the East Regional, and then rose to as high as a tie for sixth place in making the cut for the final round before finishing in 11th.

Indiana: The Hoosiers won four team championships last year before finishing fifth at the Big 10 championships. They qualified for the NCAA Central Regional in West Lafayette, Ind. and ended their season with a 20th place finish out of 27 teams.

Iowa: The Hawkeyes finished in ninth place at the Big Ten Championship but lost just three seniors off a deep squad from last year.

Miami: The Redhawks finished eighth in the Mid-American Conference Championship, coming in 18 strokes behind Ball State. Junior Ryan Swelin finished with a one-under par 215 to come in second at the tournament, just one shot behind the individual medalist.

Michigan: The host Wolverines finished tied for seventh place at the Big Ten championships last year, which they hosted at the University of Michigan Golf Course. They finished just two strokes behind sixth-place Penn State and six behind fifth-place Indiana. The Maize and Blue are a young team, as eight of the 11 players on their roster this year are either freshmen or sophomores.

Missouri: The "other" Tigers in the field won one tournament last year but finished 11th at the Big 12 championships. They have a new coach in Mark Leroux, who took over the reigns of the program in June. He came to Mizzou from Austin Peay, where he led the Governors to three straight NCAA Regional appearances.

Purdue: The Boilermakers are coming off a very successful 2003-04 campaign in which they advanced all the way to the NCAA National Championships. After finishing first at their own Boilermaker Invitational, Purdue finished fourth at the Big Ten Championships and advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional, which they hosted. There, they finished seventh out 27 teams to advance to the National Championship, where they just narrowly missed the cut for the final round, finishing 16th.

Rice: The Owls' best finish at a tournament last year was in fourth place and they also finished fifth at another. They placed ninth at the WAC championships. They lost three seniors from last year's squad.

UNC-Wilmington: Tiger head coach Grant Robbins' former team captured its first Colonial Athletic Association championship last year with many of the players on the team being ones that Robbins recruited. The Seahawks won the title by nine strokes over second place Old Dominion to advance to the NCAA Regionals for the second straight year, the first of which came under Robbins. They finished in 17th place at the NCAA West Regional, two spots behind Colorado State. They return a veteran squad this year featuring three seniors and three juniors.

Wisconsin: The Badgers finished 11th at the Big Ten Championships last year. They are currently a small squad with just seven players, four of which are juniors and the other three of which are freshmen. Head coach Jim Schuman is in his first year as head coach. He participated in the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee on the PGA Tour earlier this summer.

Xavier: The Musketeers placed second at the Atlantic 10 championships last year and junior Andy Pope was the individual medalist at the event. During the season, they won three tournaments. They advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional in West Lafayette, Ind. and finished in 23rd place.

The Course
Radrick Farms was designed by one of the most prominent golf course architects today, Pete Dye, in 1965 and opened in 1967. The 6,979-yard, par 72 course is owned by the University of Michigan. Both the greens and fairways are made up of Bent Grass. The course is known for its large greens that are traditionally fast.

Strong Field
The tournament field consists of six teams that qualified for NCAA Regionals last year, and two squads that advanced to the NCAA National Championships.

First of Many Meetings
There are several schools in the field that Memphis will see again this year at future tournaments. Georgia State, Iowa, Miami, Michigan, Missouri, Purdue, UNC-Wilmington, and Xavier will be opponents of the Tigers in tournaments later this year. Iowa, Missouri, and Xavier will be coming to the Memphis Intercollegiate next month while the Tigers will be playing at tournaments hosted by Missouri and UNC-Wilmington later this year.

Up Next
The next tournament for Memphis will be its own Memphis Intercollegiate, which will be held October 4-5 at the Colonial Country Club South Course. There are 16 teams scheduled to participate in the event.