Oct. 22, 2011
The Vanderbilt men’s golf team heads to the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational in Windermere, Fla., to play against one of the tougher fields in men’s golf this Sunday through Tuesday.
The Commodores tee it up at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club and a par-72, 7,544-yard setup.
Alabama, Augusta State, California, Florida, Indiana, LSU, North Florida, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, Stanford, UCF, and the Commodores fill out the 15-team field.
Vanderbilt will send seniors Trey DelGreco, Charlie Grace, and Adam Hofmann, junior Will Snipes, and freshman Hunter Stewart to participate in the event.
Live scoring can be found here throughout the tournament.
Inside the Ropes at the Practice Round
Incredible Beauty
Orlando’s Isleworth Country Club is a spectacular venue with multi-million dollar homes lining fairways on one side and lakes, Spanish moss covered trees and colorful magnolias lining the other. It is the home club for quite a few professional stars including Tiger Woods, Mark O’Meara, Stuart Appleby, J.B. Holmes, John Cook and Jan Stevenson to name several.
Hofmann’s Hot Start in Practice Round
Commodore senior Adam Hofmann has been on a hot streak and it was apparent on the par 4 second when he holed a pitching wedge from 127 yards for an eagle.
Looking Forward to the Dinner
The Isleworth Collegiate is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, collegiate tournaments in the country. In addition to the fabulous golf course, the player’s perks are nice. How nice? Sunday evening’s Team Dinner will feature Arnold Palmer as the guest speaker.
Gearing Up on Practice Round
The practice round plays much different than the competitive rounds. All five team members played together with a shotgun start covering 15 holes. The players have already spent considerable time on the range so they will hit their drives and approach shots relatively normally but then spend 10 minutes or so putting and chipping from various places as they anticipate where future pin placements will be.
Tiger Sightings
Almost everyone has a story about Tiger Woods, who lives at Isleworth. Senior Trey DelGreco tells of teeing off at No. 4 last year when Tiger barreled up around the corner driving a cart. The Commodore veteran admits to being distracted as he tried to focus on his own shot.
Michael Thompson Walks With Commodores
PGA member Michael Thompson, who played for Vanderbilt Coach Tom Shaw when both were at Tulane, walked much of the back nine with the Commodores, talking to Shaw and giving some advice from time to time to the ‘Dores. Thompson transferred to Alabama after Tulane was forced to give up golf after Hurricane Katrina and he became an SEC champion. He recently was third at the McGladrey Classic.
Plenty of Gators
The Florida Gators are one of 14 other schools competing in the field but there are other gators present at Isleworth – the real gators! A course newcomer was reminded that searching for lost balls near a lake might not be the wisest idea.
Perfect Weather
Saturday’s high at Windemere was 74 under crystal blue skies and the forecast doesn’t change much in the next couple of days.
