Hoos No. 3 Seed at ACC Golf Championships

April 20, 2017

Clinton, S.C. – The No. 17 Virginia men’s golf team will play in the 64th annual Atlantic Coast Conference Championships April 21-23 at the Musgrove Mill Golf Club in Clinton, S.C. UVA is the No. 3 seed at this year’s event.

The championship will get underway on Friday at 9 a.m., with North Carolina, NC State and Virginia Tech starting on hole 10 and Florida State, Georgia Tech and Duke on hole 1. Boston College, Louisville and Notre Dame start at 10 a.m. on hole 10, while defending champion Clemson goes off at 10 a.m. from hole 1 and is joined by Virginia and Wake Forest.

The 12-team field includes five teams ranked in the top 25 of the current Golfstat standings. That group includes No. 9 Wake Forest, No. 15 Clemson, No. 17 Virginia, No. 20 Georgia Tech and No. 21 Duke. Virginia’s lineup includes 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.).

Stanger leads the team with a 70.38 stroke average that ranks third in the ACC and 18th in the Golfstat standings. Bard is sixth in the ACC in scoring at 70.83, Walsh is 24th (72.14) and Walker is 27th (72.24).

Wake Forest leads all schools with 18 league titles and 22 individual champions. Georgia Tech, which has won 14 outright ACC Championships and shared two more, has produced 11 individual medalists. North Carolina is third with 11 titles (10 outright), followed by Clemson with 10 (nine outright). Virginia has never won the event, but was the runner-up in 1958, 1996, 2010 and 2012. Pete Arend won the individual title in1955 and Ben Rusch claimed the 2012 individual championship.

The 2017 tournament marks the second time the ACC Men’s Golf Championship will be held in South Carolina, and first since 1964, when it was held at Forest Lakes Country Club in Columbia. The tournament will be carried live on ACC Network Extra beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday, with Mac McDonald and Tony Austin on the call. There is no charge for admission for fans.

Commonwealth Clash
The ACC Championships will also signify the men’s golf matchup between Virginia and Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash, sponsored by Virginia529, the official college savings plan of University of Virginia Athletics. In the sport of men’s golf, there is one point at stake in the Virginia529 Commonwealth Clash, the point rivalry series between the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. The school that finishes higher in the final standings of the ACC men’s golf championship will earn the point. The 2016-17 Commonwealth Clash is tied 9-9. Learn more about Virginia529 and the competition at thecommonwealthclash.com.