Feb. 6, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's spring season begins Sunday, Feb. 8, at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships. The three-day tournament is being played at the 6,985-yard, par-72 Sawgrass Country Club, former site of The Players Championship, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
"Besides Inverness in the fall, this is probably the most difficult course we will play all year," said NU coach Pat Goss.
Billed as the first major collegiate golf tournament of the year, the Mercedes-Benz field of 18 schools boasts the top three teams in the country according to the latest Sagarin/Golfweek rankings: Florida, Clemson and Georgia. Ten of the top 25 teams in the Sagarin/Golfweek ratings are entered, and no team comes into the tournament ranked worse than 70th.
"This is a great opportunity for us," said Goss. "Ultimately, these are the teams we will compete with at the end of the year so we look forward to any chance we get to play them."
The other top 25 teams competing in the tournament are: No. 8 Augusta State, No. 10 North Carolina, No. 13 Oklahoma State, No. 14 Texas, No. 16 Duke and No. 24 Kentucky. Augusta State is the defending champion of the event, while Florida has won four of the past five Mercedes-Benz crowns.
The 22nd-ranked Wildcats played four tournaments during the fall season, finishing runner-up for the second consecutive year in the Alister MacKenzie Invitational. The fall also saw a quartet of Northwestern golfers post top-four finishes.
"Being the only northern school in the tournament by a large margin puts us at a disadvantage," said Goss. "We have improved this winter and accomplished what we wanted. The key will be to make our golf simple and limit our mistakes."
The Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships begins Sunday at 7 a.m. Northwestern is paired with host North Florida and N.C. State for the first day and will tee off beginning at 8:30 a.m. Teams will play 18 holes Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.