Golfers to Play in Inaugural “Hootie”

Golfers to Play in Inaugural “Hootie”

3/25/2005

AWENDAW, S.C.- Vanderbilt joins some of the top college golf teams in the country this weekend when the Bulls Bay Golf Club hosts the first Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate.  The unique tournament will include a special concert by Hootie and the Blowfish.

The Commodores will again take Will Armstrong, Dos Goldsmith, Luke List, Mark Donnell and Bret Lange to the tournament.

The Hootie will be the last competitive tune-up for List, who will be playing in the Masters the first week of April.  The Ringgold, Ga., sophomore qualified for this Grand Slam event by finishing second at last summer’s United States Amateur.  List had previously played in the 2003 United States Open and was the 2004 Tennessee Amateur Athlete of the Year.

Three schools – The College of Charleston, South Carolina and Clemson – serve as co-hosts for the 54-hole tournament that features 15 teams, mostly from the SEC and ACC. The Bulls Bay Golf Club is located just north of Charleston.

“We’re looking forward to having some of the best players and the best teams in college golf playing here at Bulls Bay,” said Director of Golf and General Manager Terry Florence. “As anyone who has played the course knows, wind plays a big part in the character of Bulls Bay. And in late March, we expect to have plenty of wind blowing. It should be a good test for what will be a very talented field.”

Despite its Lowcountry setting, the golf course at Bulls Bay looks much like the famed links courses of Great Britain or Long Island. With 75-foot elevation changes, wide, windswept fairways and lightning fast bentgrass greens, the course is unlike any other along the South Carolina coast. The goal of the tournament committee, according to tournament chairman Doug Carnes, is to make the Hootie at Bulls Bay equally unique in college golf.

“We are planning to make this tournament very different from other collegiate events,” said Carnes, a member at Bulls Bay and an avid golfer himself. “For one thing, this is the only tournament I know of with direct ties to a popular rock band.”
 
The collegiate players will get in a practice round Saturday, playing with sponsors and tournament supporters in an “am-am” format. A special skills competition will be followed in the evening by a Lowcountry cookout and a concert by Hootie and the Blowfish.

Sunday, the three-day “Hootie” tees off over a Bulls Bay course that will measure more than 7,100 yards for the tournament. The tournament will be open to spectators free of charge.