Pirates Open Spring Season At John Hayt Invitational
February 26, 2015 | Men's Golf
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - The East Carolina men's golf team opens its spring season at the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational Friday, Feb. 27, at the Sawgrass Country Club (par 72, 6,976 yards). The Pirates open play at the three-day, 54-hole event Friday at 9:30 am on the front nine alongside players from Louisville and UAB.
The Pirates will send a foursome of juniors: Wes Conover, Jacob Hicks, George Kilgore and Nick Thompson into competition with freshman Tim Conover. Hicks, Kilgore and the Conover brothers each played in all five tournaments during the fall.
Wes Conover, who is ranked 39th in the nation by Golfweek, posted four top-10 finishes during the fall with three top-5 finishes. Kilgore claimed medalist honors at the Rod Myers Invitational to lead the Pirates to a first-place finish at the Duke Golf Club. Hicks has the third-lowest scoring average on the team at 2-over-par, while Tim Conover shot par or better in nearly one-third of his rounds during the fall. Thompson, the individual medalist at the 2014 NJCAA Division III national championships, will be playing in his fourth tournament of the season.
Eight of the nation's top 50 teams will compete in the event, headlined by 2014 national champion Alabama and national runner-up Oklahoma State. The Crimson Tide is No. 9 in the latestGolfweek rankings, while the Cowboys are 23rd. Texas enters the tournament at No. 10 in the rankings followed by UCLA (13), North Florida (32), East Carolina (35), UAB (41) and Louisville (42). Coastal Carolina, Duke, Furman, Jacksonville, North Texas and UCF complete the field.
Tournament play opens Friday, with teams teeing off from holes No. 1 and 10 beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST. Kilgore will be the first player to tee off for ECU followed by Tim Conover, Thompson, Hicks and Wes Conover in nine-minute increments.
Players Mentioned
