U.S. Collegiate Championships Up Next For UW

ALPHARETTA, Georgia -- No. 20 Washington wraps up the fall season this weekend at the U.S. Collegiate Championship at the Golf Club of Georgia. The tournament hosted by Georgia Tech features an elite field that will be the Huskies toughest test yet this season.

The tournament is three days, beginning Friday, Oct. 17, with 18 holes each day. Washington begins off hole one on Friday, beginning at 9:50 a.m. with five consecutive tee times spaced 10 minutes apart. Washington will play with host Georgia Tech and Pac-12 rival UCLA. The teams will be re-paired each succesive day based on score.

The Dawgs face a loaded field with 10 teams ranked in the Golfstat top-25. Along with the No. 20 Huskies, No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 Stanford, No. 8 Auburn, No. 9 Texas, No. 11 LSU, No. 13 Wake Forest, No. 15 Georgia Tech, No. 24 East Tennessee State and No. 25 Virginia will compete. The rest of the field includes Clemson, Iowa, Kent State, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, also top programs.

Washington will have another new lineup this week, led by Cheng-Tsung Pan who finished as the runner-up at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational in his first tournament of the season. Following Pan will be Corey Pereira, Tyler Salsbury, Jordan Lu and Kevin Kwon. Pereira also had a top-20 at the Nike Golf Collegiate, while Salsbury will be making his first appearance in the Husky lineup so far thi season. Lu placed tied for 27th in his collegiate debut at the Husky Invitational, while Kwon finished tied for 19th at both the Husky Invitational and the Itani Quality Homes Invitational.

• This is the 14th season under head coach Matt Thurmond. He has led the Dawgs to seven top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships.
• Senior Cheng-Tsung Pan has had a great fall already. He won double gold for Taiwan at the Asian Games as the top individual, while also helping his country to the victory in the team competition. He then returned to UW and finished as the runner-up against a competitive field at the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas.
• Washington debuted at No. 20 in the golfstat.com national poll.
• Pan had the top scoring average last season for Washington at 70.29.
• Returning from the team that finished 15th at the NCAA Championships for Washington are Pan, Jonathan Sanders, Pereira and junior Chris Babcock. Neither Sanders or Babcock will compete this week.
• The Huskies finished second at both the 2014 Pac-12 Championships and the 2014 NCAA Raleigh Regional.

This is the ninth annual U.S. Collegiate Championship hosted by Georgia Tech. Last season, Oklahoma State won the team title by one shot over the host Yellow Jackets. Washington finished 10th led by Trevor Simsby who tied for 18th. Clemson and Georgia Tech are the only teams to win the tournament multiple times. The returning individual champion, Ollie Schneiderjans of Georgia Tech is back in the field this season.