Mountaineer Golf Heads To The Hayt

Mountaineer Golf Heads To The Hayt

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (March 17, 2018) – After spending spring break practicing in the southern states, the West Virginia University golf team resumes competition at The Hayt Invitational at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on Sunday and Monday.

Hosted by No. 25 North Florida, the 15-team field features No. 7 Auburn, No. 49 Tennessee, No. 24 North Carolina, Liberty, Central Florida, Washington, Lipscomb, Jacksonville, No. 43 Purdue, Furman, Coastal Carolina, No. 39 Louisville and North Texas.

Golfers will tee off in team times starting at 7:45 a.m. Sunday and will play 36 continuous holes on the first day of action on the par-72, 6,966-yard course. They will resume competition for the final 18 holes on Monday. WVU is paired with Furman and Coastal Carolina for the first two rounds with tee time starting at 8:41 a.m.

Sawgrass Country Club was formerly home to the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Championship. It has also played host to Senior Players Championship.

“We are excited to compete in one of the most prestigious collegiate events of the season at Sawgrass Country Club,” said coach Sean Covich. “There is a lot of history and tradition associated with this event and this golf course. To be able to play a championship caliber course such as Sawgrass will help prepare our guys for Big 12 Championship later this semester. This course will test every single area of your game, off the tee, distance control with irons, touch around the greens and most importantly the way you think and go about your game plan. We will find out a lot about our guys come Monday afternoon. I look forward to seeing who steps up for us this weekend.”

Max Sear, Etienne Papineau, Matthew Sharpstene, Tristan Nicholls and Marx Goetz will represent the Mountaineers.

Sear enters the event boasting a team-best 72.47 scoring average. He has five top-20 finishes in tournament play on his resume this season, most recently taking 18th at the Seminole Intercollegiate at the end of February.

Papineau is averaging 73.21 strokes per round for the Mountaineer golf team. His best finish came in the fall at The Health Plan Mountaineer Invitational, when he tied for second to lead the team to a runner-up finish at Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport.

After setting a program record with a low round of 64 at Martin Downs in February, Sharpstene ranks second on the team with a scoring average of 73.05. Tristan Nicholls and Mark Goetz are currently averaging 74.63 and 73.87 strokes per round, respectively.

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