No. 4 Cavaliers Open Spring at John Burns Intercollegiate
Feb. 14, 2017
Charlottesville, Va. – The fourth-ranked Virginia men’s golf team opens the spring portion of its schedule this week in Hawaii at the 41st annual John Burns Intercollegiate. The 18-team field will compete at the Wailua Golf Course in Lihu’e, Kaua’i. The tournament runs Wednesday, Feb. 15 through Friday, Feb. 17.
The field for this year’s tournament includes: Arizona, BYU, California, Grand Canyon, Hawai’i, Hawai’i-Hilo, Kennesaw State, New Mexico, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Santa Clara, Texas A&M, UNLV, Utah, UTEP, Washington and Washington State. Texas took top honors last year to end California’s five-year win streak at the event.
The Cavaliers’ lineup will include seniors Derek Bard (New Hartford, N.Y.) and Jimmy Stanger (Tampa, Fla.), junior Danny Walker (Bradenton, Fla.), sophomore Thomas Walsh (High Point, N.C.) and freshman Andrew Orischak (Hilton Head Island, S.C.).
UVA has three players ranked in the top 100 of the latest Golfstat rankings. Stanger enters the spring ranked No. 4 while Bard is No. 75 and Walker is No. 86. Stanger figures No. 10 in the Golfweek individual poll while Bard is 44th.
Stanger leads the Cavaliers with a 69.67 stroke average and wrapped up the fall by tying for first at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate. He had three top-10 finishes during four fall tournaments. In December, he took park in the Walker Cup practice sessions in Losa Angeles and earlier this month was named to the Ben Hogan Award watch list.
Bard, a third-team All-American last season, is second on the team with a 70.83 stroke average. He had two top-10 finishes in the fall including a runner-up performance at the Carpet Capital Collegiate, one of three tournaments the Cavaliers won earlier this season.
Last season, Walker led the Cavaliers at the Burns Intercollegiate with a seventh-place showing. He shot 2-under 214. Stanger was 18th at 216, Walsh was 32nd at 219 and Bard was 44th at 222. UVA placed fifth overall at 4-over 868.
Wailua is a municipal course, which played host to three USGA National Public Links Championships and has a Top 10 rating by Golf Digest as one of the best courses in the state of Hawai’i. It first played host to the John Burns Intercollegiate in 1978, the second year of the tournament. Participants will play a total of 54 holes over the three-day tournament at the 6,991-yard, par 72 course with an 8:30 a.m. HTZ, shotgun start each day.
Virginia will be paired with Hawaii, New Mexico and Washington State during the opening round.
Live scoring of the event will be on Golfstat.com.