Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG, Va. -- Virginia Tech will play two new events this season and return to the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at the Ridges in the fall, as the Hokies announce perhaps their most challenging golf schedules ever.
“This season’s schedule is one of the most demanding in the history of the golf program at Virginia Tech,” head coach Jay Hardwick said. “We have added two new events with top fields, the Bridgestone Invitational and the Wolfpack Intercollegiate and we will return to the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at the Ridges, which we won in 2007. These tournaments, along with the Puerto Rico Classic and the Brickyard Collegiate, two of the top ten ranked events last year, will no doubt challenge our team as never before.”
Tech begins play on Sept. 28-29 at the VCU Shootout on the Manakin Course of the Hermitage Country Club. The Hokies will then travel to Macon, Ga., to compete in the Brickyard Collegiate Golf Championship at the Brickyard at Riverside Golf Course, hosted by Mercer. Last season, the Brickyard was one of the top ten ranked events in the country. Later that week, Virginia Tech will return to the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at the Ridges. Tech did not compete at the event last season, but won the tournament in 2007.
The first of the two new events on the schedule, the Bridgestone Invitational hosted by UNC Greensboro at the Forest Oaks Golf Club, will wrap-up the fall portion of the schedule. The Bridgestone, to be played Oct. 24-25, will feature a number of Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference schools and should boast one of the top fields of the year.
Once again, the Hokies will open the spring portion of the schedule at the Puerto Rico Classic in San Juan on Feb. 21-23. Last season, this tournament joined the Brickyard Collegiate ranked among the top ten events of the year. The next event on Tech’s schedule will be March 12-14 at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate at the Pinehurst Resort, site of the 2008 U.S. Amateur.
Following Pinehurst, the Hokies will play the Furman Invitational and the Administaff/Augusta State Invitational in late March and early April. Tech’s second new event on the schedule will be April 9-10 at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate, hosted by NC State at the new, on-campus Lonnie Poole Golf Course. Tech will compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference Golf Championship at the Old North State Golf Club in Baden Lake, N.C., on April 23-25.
The Hokies return two starters from last year’s team that advanced to the NCAA Southwest Regional at the University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas, in May. The Hokies will welcome three scholarship players this fall.