March 25, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After taking a month-long hiatus, Northwestern's 32nd-ranked men's golf team resumes action this weekend at the 35th Annual Furman Intercollegiate Golf Tournament. The tournament, which has produced such individual champions as Curtis Strange (Wake Forest, 1974), Jay Haas (Wake Forest, 1976), Brad Faxon (Furman, 1983) and Matt Kuchar (Georgia Tech, 1997), begins Friday, March 26 and runs through Sunday. Besides Northwestern and Furman, 18 other teams round out the tourney field.
Virginia Tech, one of the tournament entrants, is attempting to win a record fourth-straight Furman Intercollegiate title. The host Paladins have finished second three straight times to the Hokies. Michigan is the only other Big Ten and Midwest team in this year's Furman field.
Northwestern has not played since finishing 15th (of 18 teams) at last month's NCAA Puerto Rico Classic. Senior Tom Johnson (Sacramento, Calif./Del Campo), who has three top-five and a top-15 finish in his last four events, is the team leader in scoring with an average of 72.89.
This tournament begins a busy stretch for the Wildcats. Including the Furman event, they will play in four tournaments between now and May 7 when they open play at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"We need to return to tournament form right away and fine-tune our game," said head coach Pat Goss. "If we play well, we have a chance to do very well at this tournament, if not win it." The Wildcats are the highest ranked team (according to the Golfweek/Sagarin index) competing in this tournament.
Complete results will be available for the tournament by linking to the Furman Paladins web site.