Men's Golf to Compete in The Prestige at PGA West

Oct. 12, 2006

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The Prestige at PGA West
PGA West - La Quinta, Calif.
October 16-17, 2006
Hosted by UC Davis and Stanford

This Week
The University of Northern Colorado men's golf team is back in action on Oct. 16-17 when they head to The Prestige at PGA West, one of the nation's top college events during the regular season. The event is hosted by UC Davis and Stanford, the school where Bears head coach Wally Goodwin earned National Coach of the Year honors, and held at one of the top courses (PGA West) in the country.

This marks the third consecutive year Northern Colorado has competed in the event. The team was ninth of 18 teams a year ago as Jon Stecher finished 10th individually in the competitive field. In 2004, the Bears were 15th of 16 teams and the squad's top finisher was 36th.

The years field is once again a "Who's Who of College Golf." The field includes hosts UC Davis and Stanford along with California, UC Irvine, UCLA (the three-time defending champions at the event), Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Oregon, Princeton, San Diego and USC.

Live scoring for the event can be accessed through links at UNCBears.com.

Last Time Out
Eric Higgins carded a final round of 75 to finish ninth overall at the Windon Memorial Classic hosted by Northwestern University on Oct. 8-9.

The tournament marked a return to the Chicagoland area for Northern Colorado head coach Wally Goodwin, who was coach at Northwestern from 1981-87 before taking over at Stanford where he won National Coach of the Year honors. Northern Colorado was fifth after round one of the Windon, but slipped back in each of the final two rounds, shooting four strokes higher in the second round and 16 strokes higher than the first round in Monday's final 18 holes. The tournament was won by SMU, who improved over each of the three rounds to finish at +29, 14 strokes better than second place Kansas. The tournament featured six teams ranked in the top 50 nationally.

Higgins had his best finish of the season by placing ninth overall (+9). He was 11 strokes behind SMU's Colt Knost, who finished at -2 and took individual medalist honors. Sophomore Jordan Ensrud was 24th overall (+16), seven strokes behind Higgins. Senior Kyle Sullivan finished 33rd overall (+18) following a final round 81. Junior Tom Gempel also fired an 81 on Monday and finished 51st overall (+25), one stroke better than teammate Jon Stecher, who had an 82 on Monday.

National Rankings
Northern Colorado finished the 2005-06 season ranked 102nd nationally out of 292 total Division I teams by Golfweek. The Bears were ranked 99th at the end of the fall season, and were 93rd following the 2004-05 season. The Bears are currently 147th in the latest Golfweek rankings (Oct. 12).

Next Up
The Bears will compete at the Food4Less Pacific Invitational on Nov. 6-8 at the Brookside Country Club in Stockton, Calif.