March 27, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A week after getting arguably the best outing of the year from senior and team leader Ben Fuqua, the University of Kentucky men’s golf team will travel to South Carolina to play in the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate, beginning Sunday.
The three-day, 54-hole event will be played Sunday-Tuesday with 18 holes of golf each day. The tournament will be played at the Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, S.C. The course will play at par 72 with a yardage of 7,282.
Fuqua was brilliant last weekend at the Schenkel E-Z-GO Invitational, posting a 1-over-par score for the tournament while posting his third top-20 finish of the season. Fuqua shot a team-low score of 1-under-par to open the tournament and an even-par 72 in the final round to seal the top-15 finish. The native of Danville, Ky., carded a 54-hole score of 217 at the Schenkel, his lowest 54-hole tournament score of the season.
The Wildcats have played in the Hootie at Bulls Bay every year since the 2005 season, winning the team title in 2005. UK has finished in the top 10 at the intercollegiate the past three years, with ninth-place finishes in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Kentucky will use a rotation that is familiar with the Hootie at Bulls Bay, with four of the five players in the rotation having previously played in the tournament. Head coach Brian Craig and associate head coach David Trainor will use the rotation of seniors Fuqua and Jordan Blann, freshman Chase Parker, junior Brain Belden and sophomore Mads Kristensen.
Blann has two top-10 finishes on the season with a 15.83 season-stroke average. Parker, who has the lowest season-stroke average on the team with a 75.25 mark, has been one of the most consistent players on the UK team. The native of Augusta, Ga., Parker has one top-20 finish on the season.
Junior Brian Belden and sophomore Mads Kristensen wrap up the Kentucky rotation. Belden jumped out to a great start for Kentucky at the beginning of the season, posting two top-20 finishes to start the year. The native of Emmaus, Pa., Belden has a season-stroke average of 75.70 on the year. Kristensen posted the third-best finish on the team last week at the Schenkel E-Z-GO. The native of Denmark has a season-stroke average of 75.55 in four tournaments.
Kentucky is one of four Southeastern Conference teams that make up the 15-team field at the Hootie at Bulls Bay this year. Kentucky will join Auburn, Augusta State, College of Charleston, Chattanooga, Clemson, Duke, East Tennessee State, Long Beach State, LSU, North Carolina State, South Carolina, UCF, Virginia and Wake Forest.
Live stats will be on ukathletics.com through golfstat.com.
