Oct. 5, 2012
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Andy Seeley
UCFAthletics.com
The UCF men's golf team heads to Dublin, Ohio Monday and Tuesday for the Jack Nicklaus Invitational at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The Knights are coming off a victory in the Adams Cup of Newport.
UCF head coach Bryce Wallor said the Nicklaus Invitational - which will be played at a course designed by the legendary golf figure - will be difficult for a number of reasons. First of all, the Knights will be without Ricardo Gouveia, who will be taking part in the World Amateur and will miss this tournament for the Knights. In addition to missing a team leader, the field in this event is stacked.
This week we're going into the golf tournament without one of our top players, Wallor said. We expected to have at least one player in the World Amateur. But it is an exciting time for our team. We're going to see if someone can step up and fill that role. Reid Martin hasn't traveled yet this year, but has had an enormous amount of success, so we'll see what happens.
Martin will be joined by Greg Eason, Jose Joia, Michael Visacki and Kyle Wilshire to represent the Knights.
The field is outstanding, Wallor said. You've got Arkansas, Oklahoma State, UNLV, Ohio State … there are a bunch of ranked teams coming in. There are just a bunch of quality programs at this event. It's going to be something where we have to go out and play well to have success.
One of the themes this fall for the UCF men is playing well-known courses. This week is no different, as Muirfield Village is host to The Memorial, an annual PGA Tour event. Muirfield Village Golf Club has also hosted several national championships and international team competitions, including the 1992 U.S. Amateur, 1987 Ryder Cup, the 1998 Solheim Cup and the 1986 U.S. Junior Amateur.
This is obviously a PGA Tour championship golf course, Wallor said. There's a lot of history there. Jack Nicklaus designed it and it's his golf course. It gets nothing but amazing reviews and it's the type of challenge that we're looking for so our players can go out and test themselves at the next level.
The Jack Nicklaus Invitational begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday with two rounds of golf on the first day. A third and final round will be held Tuesday.