May 13, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - Traditionally, the UCF men's golf team competes at tournaments against the nation's top squads. The 2007-08 regular-season campaign was no different for the 25th-ranked Knights.
The Knights participated in 11 tournaments during the year and the majority of the events featured top competition. When the team hosted the Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational presented by Ruth's Chris Steak House in October, 10 of the teams that competed were ranked in the top-20 nationally.
According to UCF head coach Nick Clinard, experience from playing in those types of tournaments will help the Knights at the NCAA West Regional, which begins on Thursday in Bremerton, Wash. The regional features nine of the top 25 squads in the country.
Teams like No. 2 Southern California, No. 4 UCLA, No. 9 Florida State and No. 11 Stanford will all be in action in Washington. In 2007, Stanford claimed the national championship.
"It is a good field," Clinard said. "It is going to be a heck of a challenge. It will be a challenge for us to see if we can compete. We just need to go out there and take care of ourselves and we will be fine."
Senior Giwon Suh (Orlando, Fla./Olympia), juniors Greg Forest (Palm City, Fla./Martin County) and David Johnson (Palm Bay, Fla./Melbourne), sophomore Mike Stern (Miami, Fla./Killian) and freshman Kyle Cobb (Tallahassee, Fla./Leon) will be participating in the regional for the Knights.
After UCF students concluded finals, Clinard gave his squad two weeks off. The players returned to Orlando last week and played as a team on Friday and Saturday.
During the break, the Knights spent plenty of time on the course. Suh, Forest, Johnson and Stern all participated in U.S. Open qualifying.
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