LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky men’s golf team continues its fall schedule at the Bearcat Invitational starting Monday in Cincinnati. The 54-hole event will be played over two days at Coldstream Country Club.
The Wildcats will utilize a starting lineup of Garrett Wood, Alex Goff, Campbell Kremer, Dhaivat Pandya and Jackson LaLonde. Cooper Parks, Andrew Clark and Kevin Watts will participate as individuals.
“It is great to have the Bearcat Invitational back for this fall,” UK head coach Brian Craig said. “They renovated Coldstream Country Club. The course is better than ever now and it was fabulous already. It is a championship test of golf and we are ready to take it on.”
The Wildcats opened their 2022-23 season with a fourth-place finish earlier this month at the Island Resort Intercollegiate at Sage Run Golf Club in Bark River, Michigan. After this week’s Bearcat Invitational, UK will travel to the SEC Match Play Championship Sept. 25-27 in Birmingham, Alabama, before wrapping up its fall slate at the Hamptons Intercollegiate Oct. 3-4 in East Hampton, New York.
NOTEWORTHY
Tournament History: This year marks the fifth time the Wildcats will participate in the Bearcat Invitational. Kentucky won the event in Sept. 2017 and have posted a top three finish three of the four times in which it participated.
The Course: Coldstream Country Club, modeled after the Village of Coldstream in Scotland, is a par-71, measuring 7,279 yards.
The Field: The field will play a 54-hole event over two days with a 36-hole day Monday followed by the final round Tuesday. The 13 participating teams are the Wildcats, host Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, UNCG, Rutgers, Sam Houston, Illinois State, Lamar, Miami University, Santa Clara, Xavier and Ball State.
Last Time Out: The Cats finished fourth in the 13-team field at the Island Resort Intercollegiate Sept. 4-5 at Sage Run Golf Club in Bark River, Michigan. Garrett Wood tied for seventh in the 81-competitor field at 4-under-par while Dhaivat Pandya and Alex Goff tied for 16th at 1-over.
Kentucky tallied 61 birdies, the most of any team in the field. Individually, Goff tied for the most birdies in the field with 16 while Wood tied for third with 15.
The Numbers So Far: Wood leads the Wildcats with a 70.67 scoring average through three rounds with a low round of 67. Goff and Pandya sit in a tie for second at 72.33, with Goff tallying a 69, the Wildcats’ other round in the 60’s in 2022-23.
Goff’s two rounds under par lead the team while Kremer, Pandya and Wood each possess one round at par and another under par.
Cats Return Seven: The Wildcats return seven players from the 2021-22 roster. Combined, the returners earned four top-10 finishes, 11 top-20 finishes and three of UK’s five starters from its Southeastern Championship and NCAA Regional squad will return.
Wood, Goff, Kremer Highlight Returners: Wood, UK’s leader in stroke average, highlights the returning core. He charted a 71.55 average and amassed five top-20 finishes. Goff posted a 71.97 average with four top-20 finishes, while Kremer had a pair of top-20 finishes and totaled a 72.89 stroke average.
Career Par-or-Better Rounds:
Garrett Wood – 41
Alex Goff – 36
Dhaivat Pandya – 22
Campbell Kremer – 15
Cooper Parks – 9
Jackson LaLonde – 2
Andrew Clark – 1
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