Published: September 06, 2008 11:56 pm            

Column: New look on the way for Classic

When the 20th Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic golf tournament kicks off at The Farm in Rocky Face on Thursday, there will be a different look to the 18-team field. But don’t think for a minute the caliber of golf will suffer.

Central Florida, Alabama-Birmingham, Mississippi and Mississippi State add new faces to the prestigious tournament, and they uphold the integrity of the 54-hole event, which is designed to bring to the area some of the best teams in college golf.

UAB is ranked 24th nationally by Golfweek while Mississippi State is 28th and Ole Miss 30th. In addition to those three teams and Central Florida, North Carolina is returning to the tournament for the first time in several years.

And, as Deck Cheatham, the director of golf at The Farm, said Saturday, while the new teams give a new look, the field is still solid with 11 of the country’s top-ranked teams.

No. 1 Georgia will be here, as will No. 6 Florida, No. 7 Clemson and No. 10 Georgia Tech, a six-time team CCCC winner, the last coming in 2001.

Also in the top 25 are No. 12 Tennessee-Chattanooga, East Tennessee State (14), Wake Forest (15), Texas Tech (17), Alabama (20) and Tennessee (22).

“With those rankings, our tournament is still very strong,” Cheatham said. “It’s going to be unique and interesting to watch.”

The new teams in the tournament are probably the result of an NCAA rule put in place in 2007 that puts a premium on teams finishing in the top half of tournaments in order to qualify for the NCAA regionals. Some teams that had been here in the past might elect to play in another tournament that’s not loaded with Top 30 teams.

As UTC coach Mark Guhne (pronounced June) explained, the rule is the NCAA’s version of a .500 winning percentage in baseball. If a professional baseball team plays 162 games and wins 81, it had a .500 season. Now, if a golf team plays its schedule against 142 teams in a season, it must beat 71 of them to be at the minimum .500 percentage.

In the CCCC’s 18-team field, the team that finishes last is basically 0-17. The team that wins it is 17-0. The team that finishes last could correct its percentage instantly with a win in its next tournament.

Guhne likes his team’s chances in next week’s tourney, saying the Mocs should “do pretty well” because they have all their players from a successful 2007 season back. That includes Jonathon Hodge, a second-team preseason All-American. UTC also had Derek Rende (74) and Fredrik Qvicker (88) ranked among the top 100 individual players in 2008.

And one of two incoming freshmen, Stephen Jaegar, who is from Munich, Germany, and attended The Baylor School in Chattanooga, has cracked the Mocs’ lineup for the CCCC, which switched from a spring date to its fall date in 1999.

Redshirt freshman Hudson Keener, a Northwest Whitfield alum, came close to making the squad for this tournament but came up just short. Guhne said Keener put pressure on other Mocs throughout the qualifying process.

Cheatham says The Farm’s course, which will play about 7,000 yards and to a par 72, has never been in better shape for the fall tournament. And, with that said, he’s issuing a fair warning to the golfers who will arrive in town Wednesday and then participate in a college-am event on Thursday before starting tournament play on Friday.

Beware of the greens. They’re firm and fast as the ground crew has ever been able to get them in the fall.

“We’ll see who has some nerve,” Cheatham said. “I played a couple of days ago when they were normal everyday speed, and they’re quick. When we get them to tournament speed, then that will be a whole other ballgame.”

There’s one more obstacle for the collegians. The rough is up, too. If they’re not in the fairway, they’re in for a tough time, Cheatham said.

Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the tourney are Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Wake Forest. From the Southeastern Conference, which has won the past two team titles via Alabama, and four of the past five, are Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Auburn, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi State.

Georgia State represents the Colonial Athletic, East Tennessee the Atlantic Sun and UTC the Southern.

The ACC and SEC have dominated team play in the previous 19 tournaments, with the ACC winning 11 titles and the SEC seven. The only team to interrupt that domination was Georgia State in 2005.

There are four of the top 10 ranked individuals, who make up the Golfweek preseason All-America team, in this year’s field — Clemson’s Kyle Stanley (3), Georgia’s Adam Mitchell (4), Florida’s Billy Horschel (5) and UAB’s Zack Sucher (10). And there are seven second-team All-America selections, including three from Georgia — Harris English, Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford.

Larry Fleming is sports editor of The Daily Citizen.

        

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