Bulls Continue Fall Season in Vero Beach Monday
EVENT: Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational
DATES: Monday, Oct. 23 – Tuesday, Oct. 24
LOCATION: Quail Valley Golf Club, Vero Beach, Fla.
COURSE SETUP: Par 72, 7,350 yards
LIVE SCORING: Golfstat.com
TWITTER UPDATES: @USFMGolf
TEE TIMES
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, OCT. 21, 2017 – USF men's golf will shoot for its second tournament title of the fall at the two-day Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational.
Action begins with 36 holes Monday at
Quail Valley Golf Club in Vero Beach, Fla., on a course that was designed by Tommy Fazio and Nick Price.
USF opened the fall season with a 13-shot victory at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate on Sept. 19. Since then, head coach
Steve Bradley's Bulls posted a pair of sixth-place finishes at the Marquette Intercollegiate at Erin Hills (Oct. 3) and the FAMC Intercollegiate at The Grove (Oct. 10).
The Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational will mark the collegiate debut for impressive freshman
Jonny Cachon. The Weston, Fla., native competed in the state championship in each of his four seasons at American Heritage.
The Lineup
- Jimmy Jones – The senior from Tampa moves to the top of the lineup after leading the Bulls with a 12th-place finish in the previous event. Jones has posted a team-best eight top-25 finishes since last season.
- Cristian DiMarco – The American's player of the month tied for 13th place at the last event and leads the team with a 71.6 scoring average this season. DiMarco won his first collegiate event in USF's fall opener at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate.
- Kyle Flexsenhar – The sophomore from Lake Mary, Fla., ranks second on the team with four rounds of par or better this season. Flexsenhar started the fall with a fifth-place finish at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate.
- Claudio Correa – The senior from Santiago, Chile opened the season with two top-25 finishes and tied for sixth at the Marquette Intercollegiate at Erin Hills on Oct. 3.
- Jonny Cachon – The freshman from Weston, Fla., will make his collegiate debut after leading American Heritage to a state championship his senior year of high school.
The Field
Host McNeese State, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Louisville, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Maryland, Memphis, Michigan State, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Southern Miss.
Quotable
Head coach Steve Bradley's team outlook heading into the event:
"I think we're playing pretty solid. We're going to play on grass we're familiar with and a golf course that a couple guys have played. There's some common ground there and familiarity, which will be a nice thing. Only having to go about three hours away is certainly nice as well."
"Cristian is continuing to play solid. Kyle seems to be playing pretty well. Jimmy is back to playing pretty solid and was low for us last event. I think he thinks he's got a chance to go down there and play really well this week. Claudio, other than that first round at The Grove, has kind of righted the ship a little bit and he's been playing pretty solid as well."
Bradley on the tournament field and the course at Quail Valley Golf Club:
"Jimmy has played the golf course before and a lot of us have been around it. My assistant, Brad, has played it and we've recruited on it. The field is solid and there's a lot of teams that are playing it this year that played it last year, so they have a little bit of an advantage over us. The key for us is getting down there and making sure we have a good game plan with how we want to play each particular hole and just going out and executing. We're anticipating some higher winds and some weather on at least one of the days. Hopefully our experience at The Grove last event will translate for us, just recently having gone through that. We're looking forward to the week and looking forward to the challenge."
Bradley on Jonny Cachon getting ready to make his collegiate debut:
"He was pretty close to qualifying at the beginning of the year and lost in a playoff for the first event to go as an individual. He just hasn't really gotten an opportunity due to us winning the first event and having a quick turnaround time from Erin Hills to The Grove. He went up and played in the St. Augustine Am last week and played solid. We had a qualifier this past week and he beat out Andre (Leveque) for the fifth spot. You're excited for him. He's a freshman and it's his first event. He went with us last event to The Grove, so he got a chance to see what it's like to travel with the team and kind of how things run. Hopefully that makes his transition and his week a little bit smoother. He's going to be nervous and he's going to be excited, but it's certainly part of the process for him in dealing with those things."
Â
About USF Men's Golf
USF men's golf returns six players from the 2016-17 team that captured the program's third consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship title. Head coach Steve Bradley has been at the helm for all three league championship runs and guided the Bulls back to the final rounds of the NCAA Championship in 2016. Follow @USFMGolf on Twitter for the latest information concerning the program.
Â
