Gamecocks Ready For Palmetto Intercollegiate Monday

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Head coach Bill McDonald’s young South Carolina golf squad heads to the Palmetto Intercollegiate on Monday at Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, S.C.. The Gamecocks have won the event the last two seasons and have taken home top individual honors the past two years with Will Starke winning in 2015 and Matt NeSmith in 2016.

Each golfer will play 36 holes tomorrow in shotgun start format at 8:30 ET. South Carolina will be paired with No. 3 Virginia and No. 16 Clemson for the first two rounds on Monday.

HISTORY AT PALMETTO INTERCOLLEGIATE

Carolina has played in the Palmetto Intercollegiate every season since 2012. The Gamecocks have won back-to-back team titles at the event. The program’s first Palmetto Intercollegiate championship came in 2015. The team shot 825 (-15) and Will Starke was the individual medalist with a score of 201 (-9). Last season, South Carolina took home the crown with a final tally of 821 (-19), the third lowest 54-hole score in program history. The team shot 266 (-14) in the second round, tied for the second lowest round all-time. Matt NeSmith was the individual medalist with a final score of 203 (-7). All five players in the lineup finished in the top-10 as the Gamecocks finished 18-strokes in front of runner-up Virginia.

As a team, South Carolina has recorded six-straight rounds under-par at the Palmetto Intercollegiate dating back to March 2015.

TOURNAMENT FIELD

The Gamecocks are one of three top-40 teams via Golfstat in the field at the Palmetto Intercollegiate. No. 3 Virginia and No. 16 Clemson will provide stiff competition for South Carolina as it tries to three-peat as tournament champions.

Liberty (No.36) and Augusta (55) round out the teams ranked in the top-60. Host school USC Aiken checks in at No. 18 in the Golfstat rankings for NCAA Division II.

RECAPPING THE FALL

South Carolina finished in the top-five in three of its four fall events. The team took 10th (875, +11) at the Carpet Capital Collegiate on Sept. 9-11, fifth at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate (839, -13) on Sept. 23-25, second at the Camden Collegiate Invitational (859, +19) on Oct. 22-23 and fifth at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic (840, -12) on Nov. 4-6.

Sophomore Scott Stevens and junior Keenan Huskey, Carolina’s two returnees from the team’s magical NCAA run last spring, paced the Gamecocks throughout the fall season. Stevens finished the fall with a 69.58 stroke average, three tiop-10 individual finishes, eight rounds at par or better and six rounds in the 60s. His best individual finish was at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate, when he earned runner-up medalist honors after shooting 198 (-15). The low tally was the third-best 54-hole score in program history.

Huskey finished just behind Stevens with a 69.67 stroke average. He finished in the top-20 individually in all four of the team’s events this fall, highlighted by a runner-up medalist finish at the Camden Collegiate Classic. The Greenville, S.C., native, shot in the 60s five times this fall and played eight rounds at par or better. Huskey shot 64 twice this fall, in the second round at the Maui Jim and the second round at Camden. The two 64s tied for the fourth lowest 18-hole scores in program history.

South Carolina finished the fall slate as the only school in the country with two golfers in the top-10 for scoring average. Stevens tied for 6th with his 69.58 stroke average and Huskey tied for ninth with his 69.67 stroke average.

RECAPPING THE 2015-16 SEASON

South Carolina advanced to its fourth straight NCAA Championship after a second place finish at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional behind SEC foe Georgia. At the NCAA Championship, the Gamecocks sat in 14th place heading into the final round of stroke play.

The team finished seventh after shooting a final round 277 (-3) to advance to the match play portion of the event for the first time in school history. The seventh-place finish was the team’s highest ever in stroke play at the NCAA Championship. In match play, the Gamecocks fell to eventual national runner-up Illinois, 4-1. Then-freshman Scott Stevens earned the lone point for the Gamecocks.

Three of the five players from Carolina’s NCAA Championship squad, Sean Kelly, Matt NeSmith and Will Starke, have graduated and moved on to the Canadian PGA Tour. Huskey and Stevens return for the Gamecocks this season. The team’s final Golfstat ranking was 10th, marking the second-straight top-10 finish for the program.

MCDONALD’S 18

Gamecock head coach Bill McDonald is the winningest coach by tournament victories in school history with 18. McDonald broke the previous record of nine held by Puggy Blackmon (1995-2007) with Carolina’s win at the Carpet Capital Collegiate in September 2014. McDonald captured a school-record five wins in 2014-15 and snagged his latest victory at the 2016 Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate.

UP NEXT FOR THE GAMECOCKS

Carolina will have a short week of preparation as it heads to the General Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. on March 11-12. The Gamecocks won last year’s General Hackler with a final score of 841 (-23). Three-time All-American Matt NeSmith tied for medalist honors at 9-under.