Texas Tech University Athletics
Men's Golf Continues Busy Week in Arizona
March 16, 2010 | Men's Golf
March 16, 2010
LUBBOCK, Texas - Three tournaments and nine rounds of golf in 12 days makes the Texas Tech men's golf team the envy of the average weekend duffer. For the 16th-ranked Red Raiders, it will be business as usual when play gets underway at the National Invitational Tournament in Tucson, Ariz., Wednesday.
Coming off of Sunday's solid fifth-place finish at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, where Tech defeated three top 10 programs, the Red Raiders took Monday off to travel from Las Vegas to Tucson and participate in Tuesday's practice round for the NIT. The team will play two rounds Wednesday and the final round Thursday, before heading up Interstate 10 to Marana, Ariz., for the Callaway Match Play Championships, Sunday through Tuesday.
The National Invitational Tournament is a 54-hole format and will be played at Omni Tucson National, a par 72, 7,094-yard layout. Live scoring throughout the tournament will be available at www.golfstat.com. In addition to the Red Raiders, two other top 20 programs are among the field of 13 - (5) Texas and (17) TCU - while (21) California is just outside the top 20. Other teams comprising the field are (32) Colorado State, (35) SMU, (43) Arizona, (44) Baylor, (47) New Mexico, Purdue, UTEP, Tulsa and Wyoming.
Chris Ward (McKinney, Texas) leads the Red Raiders heading into Wednesday's tournament, after finishing in a tie for 16th place at the Southern Highlands event. Nils Floren (Ljungskile, Sweden), ranked No. 8 nationally, tied in 21st place at the event alongside teammate Matt Smith (Canberra, Australia). Finley Ewing IV (Dallas, Texas) and Tyler Weworski (Carlsbad, Calif.) finished tied in 43rd and 53rd places, respectively. The quintet will be joined in Tucson by Brian Scherer (Midland, Texas), who will play as an individual.
Floren leads the team with a 72.3 stroke average and has a 434-56 head-to-head record this season and one win (Carpet Capital Collegiate). In six tournaments, Floren has three top five finishes. He also is second nationally in par four scoring with a 3.95 average. Ward is second on the team with a 73.4 stroke average, followed by Smith at 74.5. Ewing and Weworski are averaging 75.1 and 77.0 strokes, while Scherer averages 74.5 strokes. Overall on the season, the Red Raiders are 62-25 in head-to-head competition and are currently playing the nation's eighth-toughest schedule, according to the latest Golfweek rankings.
Players Mentioned
