Men's Golf Opens Spring Season in Hawaii
1/30/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Jan. 30, 2012
FORT WORTH--The TCU men's golf team will tee off the 2012 spring season this week at the 22nd annual Amer Ari Invitational in Kona, Hawaii. The tournament, which runs Wednesday through Friday, will be played at Waikoloa Beach Resort.
TCU will start things off with a practice round Tuesday. The tournament itself will feature a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start each day prior to 18 holes of competition Wednesday through Friday. Competing for the Frogs will be freshman Julien Brun, junior Daniel Jennevret, senior Johan de Beer, junior Pontus Gad and sophomore Johnny Antle.
The tournament will be played at the Waikoloa Kings' Course on the island of Hawaii. The course, designed by the world-renowned team of former PGA golfer Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, plays 7,074 yards with a par score of 72.
A challenging field featuring 11 of the nation's top-50 teams in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin national team rankings will participate in the Amer Ari Invitational, including: No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Oregon, No. 4 UCLA, No. 7 Stanford, No. 9 Georgia Tech, No. 10 Washington, No. 11 USC, No. 23 Oklahoma State, No. 46 TCU, No. 48 San Francisco and No. 50 Oregon State. Filling out the field will be Arizona State, Cal Davis, Chico State, Colorado, Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii-Manoa, San Jose State, Texas Tech and Osaka Gakuin University.
In addition to giving TCU a competitive field to match up against in the spring opener, this week's tournament also will give the Horned Frogs a sneak peek at three future Big 12 Conference rivals in Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech.
Brun, who is No. 12 nationally in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings, will be one of 16 of the nation's top-50 rated golfers playing in the Amer Ari Invitational. Also expected to be among the field are: No. 1 Dylan Frittelli (Texas), No. 2 Jordan Spieth (Texas), No. 3 Eugene Wong (Oregon), No. 4 Patrick Rodgers (Stanford), No. 6 Patrick Cantlay (UCLA), No. 10 Chris Williams (Washington), No. 16 Julio Vegas (Texas), No. 19 Daniel Miernicki (Oregon), No. 20 Andrew Yun (Stanford), No. 22 Cameron Wilson (Stanford), No. 24 Steve Lim (USC), No. 29 Anders Albertson (Georgia Tech), No. 31 Talor Gooch (Oklahoma State), No. 34 James White (Georgia Tech), No. 49 Rak Cho (Oregon) and No. 50 Cheng-Tsung Pan (Washington).
Brun leads the Frogs into the spring after putting together the strongest debut season ever by a Horned Frog freshman during the fall campaign. He finished the fall as the highest-rated golfer in the Mountain West and was second in the conference in overall stroke average (70.67). The French product posted one tournament win at the Turning Stone Tiger Intercollegiate (70-67-71) while adding two other top-five finishes at the McLaughlin (T-3rd) and the Jack Nicklaus Invitational (T-5th). He also placed in the top 10 at the highly competitive Isleworth Collegiate Invitational.
Filling the No. 2 spot for TCU this week will be Jennevret, who also posted a strong fall campaign. The nation's No. 52-ranked golfer, he posted a pair of top-five finishes of his own at Turning Stone (second) and The McLaughin (second). His lowest carded score of the fall was a 65 in the final round at The McLaughin.
Johan de Beer returns to the TCU lineup for his final season looking to put an exclamation point on his fantastic career as a Frog. He is the only three-time all-conference selection for TCU in its seven seasons as a member of the Mountain West and finished his junior campaign ranked No. 126 nationally.
Joining Brun, Jennevret and de Beer in the Frog lineup this week will be Gad and Antle. Gad finished last spring ranked third on the team in overall stroke average and twice earned top-20 finishes. Antle, who played in one varsity tournament for the Frogs last season, will be making his season debut.
Following the Amer Ari Invitational, TCU returns to the links Feb. 26-28 in Jacksonville, Fla., when it plays in the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational at Sawgrass Country Club.
Players Mentioned
