March 13, 2008

Head Coach Sam Puryear Podcast
Live Scoring

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State men's golf team begins the 2008 spring portion of its schedule this weekend with the Schenkel E-Z-GO Invitational at the Forest Heights Country Club (par-72, 6,962 yards) in Statesboro, Ga. The three-day, 54 hole tournament will begin on Friday morning with 9 a.m. tee times.

The Spartans, ranked No. 15 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin team rankings, is among the field which includes five of the top 15, seven of the top 25, and 12 of the top 50 programs in the country. Highlighting the competitors are No. 2 Alabama, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 11 Auburn and No. 12 Florida.

Michigan State had three top-two team finishes in its five fall tournaments, including a win at the Fighting Irish Invitational, and second place finishes at the Inverness Intercollegiate and Big Ten/Pac 10 Challenge.

Individually, the tournament features 15 of the top 50 players in the country, according to Golfweek, led by No. 2 Michael Thompson of Alabama and MSU senior Ryan Brehm, the fourth-ranked collegiate golfer.

Brehm, a Mid-Season All-American by GolfWorld and a member of the Ben Hogan Award watch list, has won or shared the lead in three of the five Spartan tournaments in the fall. Brehm, who is the Spartans' career scoring average leader at 73.26, tied for first at the Inverness Intercollegiate to begin the fall and would later close the season out strong with back-to-back wins at the Fighting Irish Invitational and the Big Ten/Pac 10 Challenge.

Joining Brehm in the Spartans' starting five this weekend will be junior Steve Cuzzort, sophomores Payne Gniewek and Jack Newman, and freshman Graham Baillargeon.

Live scoring will be available on Golfstat.com and tournament details can be found on the Georgia Southern athletic web site.