North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Wolfpack Hosts Own Event On Its Own Course
4/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – For more than 30 years, NC State golf coach Richard Sykes has been compiling his invitation list, hoping to get the best field possible for the first time NC State hosts its own golf tournament on its own campus.
The story is well-known: Ever since Sykes played for the Wolfpack in the 1960s and throughout his nearly four decades as head coach, the program has been a vagabond, playing practice rounds and its own tournament at courses all over the Triangle.
That changed last July 31, when Arnold Palmer christened the brand new Lonnie Poole Golf Course, a 7,358-yard championship layout on NC State's Centennial Campus. Friday morning, 17 teams will tee off in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate, an event NC State has hosted or co-hosted in one form or another since 1982.
After such a long wait, Sykes has only one goal for the first collegiate tournament played on NC State's own course.
"I just really want the teams that are coming here to enjoy our course," Sykes said. "We know this first year that everything won't be grown in and it won't be completely perfect. But I would like them to leave here saying that we put on a nice event, that they enjoyed it and that they can see it will be a really nice course.
"I am not trying to trick them or beat them up. We just want to let them enjoy the course."
The par-71 course's construction was overseen by Palmer Design Company architects Eric Larsen and Brandon Johnson, both of whom graduated from NC State. Since it opened last July, the difficult course with the panoramic views of downtown Raleigh has gotten rave reviews and hosted many events, including the annual Jimmy V Charity Classic.
But the course was built to withstand the limber backs of college golfers, with multiple opportunities to extend or shorten the course. That's what Sykes will do on Friday, when the teams will play 36 holes, with tee boxes and pin placements changed between rounds.
"We can make the course very, very hard, but we don't want to," Sykes said. "We want to give everyone a fair chance to play an excellent course."
The final round will be played on Saturday. Admission is free for all both days.
The field is particularly strong, including nine of the 11 ACC teams. The only two who couldn't be here because of scheduling conflicts are Clemson and Boston College. Eight teams are currently ranked in the Top 50 of Golfstat.com's adjusted scoring average: Florida State (12), Georgia Tech (13), Virginia (15), Wake Forest (29), Duke (30), NC State (35), Michigan (45), Virginia Tech (48). Also included in the field are Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, East Carolina, Maryland, New Orleans, North Carolina, Purdue, UNC Wilmington and Virginia Commonwealth.
Two former Wolfpack players are now head coaches who will be looking for their teams to do well on their alma mater's new course: Virginia's Bowen Sargent and East Carolina's Press McPhaul.
Among the top individuals competing in the event is defending NCAA champion Matt Hill. The Wolfpack junior, who won seven of his final eight events en route to the school's first individual golf title last year, returned to the top of the leaderboard in his last tournament, winning at the Hootie at Bull's Bay with a career-best 54-hole total of 204.
He extended his school-record total of career victories to 10.
Sykes will actually enter an A team and a B team, in order to get everyone on his roster an opportunity to play in the event. He's hoping his A team – Hill, senior Brad Revell, freshman Mitch Sutton, senior Adam Hogue and sophomore Mark McMillen – will bring its A game.
"Lord have mercy, we have played like a yo-yo this spring," Sykes said. "The first week, we finished second, the second week we finished second to last."
In the last three events, NC State has finished in the middle of the pack: sixth of 12 teams in the General Hackler Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; seventh of 15 teams in the Chris Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational in Statesboro, Ga.; and eight of 15 teams at the Hootie at Bulls Bay in Awendaw, S.C.
Sykes is hoping for a good performance at home to tune up for the ACC Championship, which is slated for April 23-25 at Old North State Club in New London, N.C.
This is a big weekend for golf fans, of course, with the season's first major, The Masters, underway in Augusta, Ga. That's why the Wolfpack event is divided into 36 holes on Friday and 18 holes on Saturday.
"We used to have it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then we used to play 36 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday," Sykes said. "Then we realized everyone wanted to watch the Masters.
"Heck, I wanted to watch it too, so we changed it around a little."
And, considering the strength of the field, there is a good chance that spectators attending this year's Wolfpack Invitational might be getting a preview of future Masters' competitors.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
