Sept. 27, 2006
Windermere, Fla. - The field for the third-annual Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational is set as defending team champion Georgia will be among 18 squads vying for the 2006 title at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Fla. UCF, the Central Florida Sports Commission and Tavistock Group will team together once again to host the three-day tournament from Oct. 22-24 at the Par-72, 7,544-yard course.
The Bulldogs, who won the event a year ago by seven strokes with a team score of 872 (+8), return to face an elite list of teams that all finished inside the Top 50 of the 2006 Golfweek/Sagarin final rankings, including five of the top 10 teams. Nine of the teams were also among the top 15 finishers at the NCAA Championship in June.
"The field speaks for itself and it keeps getting stronger year after year," UCF head coach Nick Clinard said. "We have at least a dozen teams ranked in the Top 20, so we are all looking forward to an exciting three days of golf."
Defending individual champion Pablo Martin returns to the field, headlining an Oklahoma State squad that captured the 2006 NCAA Championship in Sunriver, Ore. The Cowboys were runner-up to the Bulldogs in 2005 at the ICI as Martin won medalist honors by two strokes with a three-round total of 212 (-4). Martin edged Chris Kirk of Georgia, a year after the two shared medalist honors at the inaugural event in 2004.
"This is the premier event in college golf and we are happy to be hosting it along with the Tavistock Group and Central Florida Sports Commission," Clinard added. "It has been a wonderful partnership and we are looking forward to putting on a great tournament."
The ICI is also pleased to announce the launch of its new comprehensive website - www.isleworthcollegiate.com - dedicated solely to the coverage of the three-day event. The site, both unique and informative in nature, is currently available for players, coaches, sponsors and spectators to use in a variety of ways. The site features tournament history, previous leaderboards, an interactive team map, course layout, spectator information, archived news stories and much more.
The Field (final 2006 Golfweek/Sagarin ranking)
Arizona (14), Clemson (8), Duke (16), Florida (3), Florida State (45), Georgia (2), Georgia State (12), Georgia Tech (4), Kentucky (20), North Carolina (13), Oklahoma State (1), South Carolina (41), Texas (21), Texas A&M (10), Texas Tech (15), Tennessee (35), UCF (49), Wake Forest (11).