WRAL Sports Fan

Golf

College: Deacons open spring season

By Staff and wire reports

Feb 12, 2009

WINSTON-SALEM — Wake Forest heads to Gainesville, Fla., this weekend to open its spring schedule at the SunTrust Gator Invitational at the Mark Bostic Golf Course.

This will be the fifth-straight year that Wake Forest kicks off its spring schedule in Gainesville and there’s no wonder why, as the Demon Deacons have finished no worse than sixth and have recorded a second and third place finish over the last four years.

“I am excited to get going this week,” head coach Jerry Haas said. “Everyone is always ready to go at the start of the spring because we’ve been looking forward to this tournament since the end of the fall.

“We have had great weather to prepare and the guys are playing well. We always seem to play well at the Gator. It’s a very good course that if you stay patient, I think you have a chance to score really well.”

The field this weekend, which consists of a total of 14 teams, includes 10 teams that are ranked in the top-50 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin performance index. Florida, the tournament host and winner of the last five SunTrust Gator Invites, is the highest ranked team at No. 14, while the Deacs come in as the fifth-highest ranked team at No. 28.

Dustin Groves will head the Demon Deacon lineup this weekend. He was second on the team this fall with a 72.7 stroke average and posted a career-best finish of 11-under at the VCU Shootout where he shot a career-best 6-under 65 in the second round.

This will be Groves’ fourth trip to the SunTrust Gator Invitational and so far, he is averaging 73.8 over his nine tournament rounds with his low score of 69 coming in the second round last spring. His best finish is a tie for 36th in 2007.

Brendan Gielow will play in the second spot for Wake this weekend. The Muskegon, Mich., native is coming off a solid fall in which he led the team with a 72.1 stroke average and was the only player on the team to have all 15 of his rounds count towards the team score.

Like Groves, Gielow also posted a career-best finish at the VCU Shootout, as a career-low 7-under 64 in the second round paved the way for him to claim his first collegiate medalist honors.

Gielow ended the fall with the win at the VCU Shootout, a T13 at the Brickyard Collegiate, a T9 at the Bank of Tennessee and last week, finished T7 at the prestigious Jones Cup, one of the top amateur events in the country. This is Gielow’s third trip to the SunTrust Invite as he finished T9 last year after rounds of 71-68-69 and T12 in 2007 after rounds of 71-68-75.

Junior Preston Yates will head off third for the Deacons this weekend. In Yates’ only action in the fall, he carded a career-low 2-under, 69 in the second round of the Duke Individual Collegiate on his way to a T20. Despite not playing in a team event in the fall, Yates looks ready to go this spring.

“Preston is playing really well right now,” said Haas. “He is striking the ball well and this course should setup pretty well for him. I am excited to see how he does this weekend.”

Junior Travis Wadkins and freshman Daniel Meggs will round out Wake Forest's starting five.

The first and second round will be played on Saturday, Feb. 14 with action getting underway with an 8 a.m. shotgun start. The final round will be played on Sunday beginning with tee times at 8 a.m.