July 28, 2017
Vanderbilt will once again play one of the nation’s toughest schedules at some of the most well-known golf courses in the world in 2017-18, with their challenging slate beginning September 1-3 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links with seven other teams in the Carmel Cup. In all, the Commodores will play nine regular season events and the SEC Championship, which will once again have a stroke/match play format and for the first time, will feature live television coverage from the SEC Network in the final round of match play, at the Sea Island Golf Club in Sea Island, Ga.
“Each year we try to put together a schedule that will help prepare our team for Championship season and also take them to special places and courses that will ultimately help them grow,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh, who is entering his sixth season with the Commodores. “Our guys want to play against the best competition each every week and I believe that’s how you get better as a team. This year’s schedule is no different. We are going to play against great competition on great golf courses.”
The Commodores’ fall schedule includes the Carmel Cup, which takes place for the seventh time this fall on the Monterey Peninsula and the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Links. The Commodores add a new tournament to their fall schedule September 16-17 in Durham, N.C., at the Rod Myers Invitational, in an event hosted by Duke University. Vanderbilt will then play in the Nike Collegiate Invitational, which returns to Portland, Oregon, October 1-3. Later in the month, the Commodores travel to Windermere, Fla, to play in one of college golf’s most competitive events, the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational, and then wrap up their fall at the East Lake Cup in Atlanta, Ga., a three-day tournament that features stroke and match play that will be featured on the Golf Channel October 30 through November 1.
“Once again, we will start our fall at Pebble Beach for the Carmel Cup, which is truly an amazing experience,” said Limbaugh. “We are going to the Rod Myers Invitational this year which will be a new event that our guys will be excited about. The Nike Collegiate Invitational is back at Pumpkin Ridge this year. The Tavistock Collegiate is one of our favorite events at Isleworth which is a great test. As we did last year, we get to finish the fall at the East Lake Cup in Atlanta in another event that will be live on the Golf Channel. We are so excited to have that opportunity again as it really helped last year’s team grow and become better.”
The spring season begins with a familiar destination, Gainesville, Fla., for the SunTrust Gator Invitational. Vanderbilt returns to the event after taking a year off last season. The next three tournaments are very familiar for the Commodores, the Querencia Cabo Intercollegiate in Los Cabos, Mexico (March 4-6), the Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Ga. (March 16-18), and Vanderbilt’s own Mason Rudolph Championship, which takes place one week later than normal, April 13-15.
“The spring season will start this year at the Gator in Gainesville,” said Limbaugh. “We will then go to one of our favorites, the Querencia Cabo Collegiate, which is one of the finest events in college golf. We will end our spring with the Schenkel invitational and then host our Mason Rudolph Championship at Vanderbilt Legends Club to end our regular season.”
The SEC Championship, will feature three days of stroke play, and then two days of match play to determine the SEC Champion, with the final round televised live on the SEC Network. Eighteen holes of stroke play will be played from April 25-29, with a cut to the low eight teams taking place for match play, which will begin April 28. The quarterfinals and semifinals are set for April 28th, with the championship match on April 29.
NCAA Regionals take place at six regional sites May 14-16, with the NCAA Championship set for May 25-30 at the Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla.