Commodores open season at Carmel Cup

The Vanderbilt men’s golf team will once again open its season at the Pebble Beach Golf Links and the Carmel Cup, an eight-team event that will feature some of the nation’s top collegiate teams on one of the world’s most recognizable golf courses.  Eighteen holes will be played Friday through Sunday, with play beginning off of the No. 1 tee at 7 a.m. Pacific time on Friday.

“We are fortunate to play in some of the best tournament in college golf at some of the greatest golf courses in the world and the Carmel Cup certainly is one of those events,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh, who is entering his seventh season with the Commodores.  “There are a lot of people that pull together to allow us to start our season at such a prestigious event on one of the most famous golf courses in the world and we are so thankful for it.”

The Commodores, who finished ninth at last year’s NCAA Championship in Stillwater, Okla., joins defending national champion Oklahoma State, 2017 national champion Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi State.  Oklahoma State is ranked No. 1 in the preseason by the Golf Coaches Association of America, with Oklahoma third, Vanderbilt fifth, Texas Tech 15th, and Arkansas 17th in those rankings.  The tournament is a six-counting-five event.

Vanderbilt will send a seasoned bunch to participate at Pebble Beach with seniors Will Gordon and Patrick Martin, junior John Augenstein, sophomores Mason Greenberg and Harrison Ott, and freshman Reid Davenport competing for the Commodores this weekend.  Gordon, Martin, Augenstein and Ott will be playing Pebble Beach for the second time in three weeks after all four competed at the U.S. Amateur at the world-renown facility.

 “I think sometimes everyone looks at the end of a journey as the most important part, but really the beginning is just as important as you start to see if and how the team will come together,” said Limbaugh.  “Coach Todd and I are extremely excited about this year’s team.  We think we have some depth and some young guys that have started taking ownership of their games.  The leadership of any team is always the most important part and we have some guys that know how to lead and know what the expectations are in the program. Our request to our guys is simple, to be fully involved and engaged with no guarantee of the outcome.”

Live scoring can be found throughout the weekend on Golfstat.com.

List, Snedeker in FedEx Playoffs
Commodore alums Luke List and Brandt Sneaker will each tee it up in the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the Dell Technologies Championship at the TPC Boston, where the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup rankings will play this weekend.  List is currently ranked 31st and Snedeker 35th in the rankings.

The top 70 advance to the BMW Championship next weekend in Chicago, Ill. and the top 30 to the Tour Championship in Atlanta, Ga., September 20-23.

Stewart, Schwab at Made in Denmark Open
Commodore Hunter Stewart and Matthias Schwab are playing in Denmark this weekend at the European Tour’s Made In Denmark Open at the Silkeborg Ry Golf Club in Aarhus, Denmark.

Stewart, who is making his third consecutive start on the European Tour, is coming off of a T-9 finish at the D+D Real Czech Masters last weekend.