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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Men's Golf Opens 2004 Campaign Monday in New Orleans
2/5/2004 | Men's Golf
Feb. 5, 2004
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss men's golf team opens its 2004 spring campaign with the Nokia Sugar Bowl Tulane Invitational, Feb. 9-10, in New Orleans, La. The tournament will be played at the English Turn Golf & Country Club, which hosts the New Orleans PGA Tour event each spring.
The tournament format includes a total of 54 holes - 36 on Monday and 18 on Tuesday. The Rebels will be joined by the host Green Wave, Alabama, UAB, New Orleans, Southern Miss, SMU, Southeastern Louisiana and Wake Forest in the nine-team field.
"We've trained really hard in preparation for the upcoming spring season," says ninth-year Ole Miss head coach Woody Cowart. "To be successful, we are going to need some of our younger players to step up. We have two fourth-year players - Lucas Boyd and Jordan Dempsey - who are taking a redshirt this season. Those two also happened to have our best averages last year, so, needless to say, we have some gaps to fill in the line-up.
"A lot of these first and second-year guys were thrown into the fire this past fall. We will, once again, need contributions from them in the spring. In the long run, the experience they gain this spring will be invaluable to their individual games and the success of this program. We need our younger players to keep improving and we need some of our upperclassmen to play better than they did in the fall."
Ole Miss opened its 2003 fall season Sept. 8-9 by tying for eighth place in the 14-team Cleveland Golf/Kiawah Island Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, S.C. Senior Pope Spruiell paced the Rebels by firing a 68-76=144, which tied for 10th place individually.
The season continued Sept. 22-23 in Nashville, Tenn., as the Rebels placed fifth in the 18-team Mason Rudolph Championships. Ole Miss posted a day-one score of 290 before turning in a day-two count of 296 for its total of 586. The Rebels' top-finisher was junior Jarrod Gardner, who tied for 12th place individually with a 75-70=145.
The Rebels hit the midpoint of their fall campaign Sept. 29-30 at the Adams Cup of Newport in Kingsport, R.I. Spruiell tied for 12th-place honors - 72-75-75=222 - to lead Ole Miss.
After nearly a full month off, the Rebels resumed fall action Oct. 20-21 in Tampa, Fla., at the Gary Koch/Cleveland Golf Intercollegiate. Spruiell and freshman Chris Rogers topped the Ole Miss individual charts by firing identical rounds of 73-72-77=222.
Ole Miss capped its fall season Oct. 27-29 at the Country Club of Louisiana Intercollegiate in Baton Rouge, La. Freshman Kyle Ellis recorded scores of 74-72-71=217 to tie for 14th place individually.
