WVU Golf to Host The Health Plan Mountaineer Invite

WVU Golf to Host The Health Plan Mountaineer Invite

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (Oct. 6, 2019) – The No. 25 West Virginia University golf team returns home to host The Health Plan Mountaineer Invitational on Monday and Tuesday at Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, West Virginia.

Golfers will tee off in a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. and will play 36 continuous holes on Monday at the par-72, 7,308. The teams will cap play with the third and final round on Tuesday, going off in tee times starting at 8 a.m.

In addition to the Mountaineers, the field includes Washington State, UConn, Southern Miss, Florida Atlantic, Rice, Davidson, Akron, James Madison, Eastern Michigan, George Washington, Youngstown State, Marshall, Towson and Xavier.

The 2019 season marks the fifth year the Mountaineers have hosted the event. In 2017 the team paired with The Health Plan as the title sponsor, changing the name from the Mountaineer Intercollegiate to The Health Plan Mountaineer Invitational. West Virginia is the defending champion at the event, taking home the team title for the first time last October. Then-senior Max Sear was the medalist, becoming the first Mountaineer to win a tournament in more than three decades.

Senior Philipp Matlari will play in the No. 1 spot after winning back-to-back qualifiers, followed by junior Matthew Sharpstene, senior Etienne Papineau, junior Mark Goetz and freshman Nico Lang. Junior Logan Perkins, sophomore Kurtis Grant and freshmen Trent Tipton and Christian Boyd will compete as individuals.

Matlari and Papineau both earned top-20 finishes at the event last season, with Papineau tying for fourth place overall. Papineau also is coming off a sixth-place finish at the Old Town Club Collegiate where he set a new program record with a three-round score of 203

Sharpstene also finished in the top 10 at the 2018 event, taking sixth place. He ranks second on the team this season with a scoring average of 70.33. Papineau, Lang and Matlari all tie for third at 71.00, while Perkins leads the team at 70.00.

Most recently, WVU tied for third place at The Old Town Club Collegiate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Sept. 23-24. Prior to that, the team tied for fifth place at the Gopher Invitational in Independence, Minnesota, to start the season. West Virginia picked up its first-ever top-25 ranking last week in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll.

Next up, the Mountaineers travel to Houston for the Big 12 Match Play Championship, which will be held at The Club at Houston Oaks from Oct. 11-13.

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