Men's Golf Release (03-04) - Feb. 12 poll - Guilford College

  • GUILFORD GOLFERS UP TO SECOND IN NATIONAL POLL

Complete Poll

Greensboro, NC (02/12/04) -- Guilford's men's golf team rose one position to second in the February 12 Division III Precept Coaches Poll, the Golf Coaches Association of America announced Thursday. Methodist remained atop the poll as it has all season and received 13 first-place votes. Guilford earned one first-place vote and 481 points. St. John's (MN), which stood second in the previous poll, received four first-place votes, but slipped to fourth place with 460 points. Gustavus Adolphus moved up a spot to third place and received three first-place votes and 462 points. Greensboro is ranked 11th in this week's poll.

Coach Jack Jensen's Quakers ranked 12th in the preseason Precept poll, but rose steadily thanks to a very successful fall season. Guilford won its season-opening Uwharrie Point/Johnny Palmer Invitational and recorded second-place finishes at the Greensboro Invitational and the North Shore/Pfeiffer Intercollegiate. The Quakers missed the team title in both tournaments by one stroke. Guilford claimed third in its own Tom O'Briant Memorial and its 'B' team finished fourth in the Dogfight at Stoney Creek. The team's 293.82 stroke average in 11 fall rounds leads the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). The Quakers finished fourth in the final fall 2003 Golfstat.com Division III Head-to-Head Rankings.

A trio of sophomores and two freshmen comprised the Quakers' lineup for most of the fall. Three Guilford players received the ODAC's Golfer of the Week Award in three consecutive weeks. Sophomore Brant Stovall (Lawsonville, NC/North Stokes) leads Guilford with a 73.45 stroke average in 11 rounds. He won the Quakers' first ODAC prize. Sophomore Daniel Day (Cheshire, CT/Cheshire) earned the award for the week of October 8 and stands second on the team with a 73.91 average. Rookie Colin Clark (Durham, NC/Chapel Hill) took the October 15 award and ranks third on the team with a 74.0 average. He played number-one in Guilford's lineup last fall after posting the best scores during preseason qualifying.

Guilford's spring season starts March 1 with the 36-hole Pine Needles/Pfeiffer Invitational at the Pine Needles Resort in Southern Pines, NC. The Quakers have fared well at the tournament in recent years with a win in 2001, a second-place finish in 2002 and a seventh-place effort in 2003.

The Quakers finished 17th in the 2003 NCAA Division III National Tournament after winning the national title in 2002.