Feb. 10, 2011
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's golf team begins the spring portion of its season when the Vikings travel to Tampa, Fla., to take part in The Match Play at TPC Tampa on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 11-12).
CSU's first match will be against Connecticut at 8:05 a.m., beginning off the 10th tee. If CSU wins, the Vikings will play the winner of another first round match between Xavier and DePaul at 12:15 p.m. The first round losers will play a consolation match starting at 12:50 p.m.
In the 16-team match play format, five individual golfers will play for each team in a head-to-head matchup. If an individual wins the match against the opponent, he earns one point for his team. If he ties the match, then it is a half-point for each team. The team to earn three points wins the match and moves on.
The semifinals and finals will be played on Saturday.
"We are excited to kick off the spring season and see where we stand as a team," head coach Steve Weir said. "This is a unique format of play for our guys, but we just have to go out and play our games and make pars because that will win or half a lot of holes.
"They guys worked extremely hard over the winter and are prepared for the spring. They were not happy with their performance during the fall and took it upon themselves to get better. I am extremely optimistic about this group and can't wait to see how we stack up against such a quality field this weekend."
In addition to Villanova and Marquette, the other participating teams are Ball State, Notre Dame, Kennesaw State, Xavier, Cincinnati, Campbell, Cleveland State, Loyola Maryland, Connecticut, St. John's, Charleston Southern, DePaul, Morehead State, and USF.
Senior Kent Monas will play at the No. 1 position for the Vikings this weekend. He led the team in scoring during the fall season (73.1), including five rounds of par or better and three top-20 finishes. Monas has a career scoring average of 74.8, ranking second all-time in school history behind Jake Scott (74.1).
"Kent has had a great career up to this point and I expect him to continue that this year," Weir said. "He hits the ball a ton and knows his strengths and weaknesses and if he can start making a few more putts, he has the chance to post some low numbers."
Sophomore Michael Klaric will play No. 2 with freshman Andrew Bailey at No. 3 this weekend.
Klaric, who tied for sixth place at last year's Horizon League Championship to earn a spot on the all-tournament team, averaged 73.7 per round in the fall and has shown continued improvement since he first arrived on campus.
"Michael has really matured as a player during his time at CSU," Weir said. "He was kind of thrown into the fire as a freshman, but was able to grow and I think those experiences will help him this year and in the future."
Bailey, the lone freshman who will play this weekend, was one of just two CSU golfers to play in all 13 rounds, averaging 74.4 with two top-five finishes.
"Andrew had a great fall, especially for a freshman playing college golf for the first time," Weir said.
Senior Drew Davidson (No. 4) and sophomore Jon Riemer (No. 5) will round out the Vikings lineup this weekend.
"This is probably the deepest team that we have had since I have been here," Weir said. "When you have guys like Drew and Jon or Pat (Elber) and Brendan (Byrne) playing at the bottom of your lineup, you will be in good shape. It's guys like that who are going to help us at key moments this year because they are so steady and understand what they have to do to help this team be successful."
Following The Match Play, the Vikings will be out of action until March 14-15 when CSU competes at the Don Benbow Classic in Jacksoville, Fla.
