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WVU Release Lyons Announces 2015-16 WVU Golf Slate

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Lyons Announces 2015-16 Golf Slate


MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (July 1, 2015) – For the first time in 30 years the West Virginia University golf team will hit the links as an official varsity sport, competing in a slate of 13 tournaments as announced by WVU Director of Athletics Shane Lyons on Wednesday.



“I am thrilled with our tournament schedule for our first official season,” said coach Sean Covich. “We will play against great competition all year on some the best courses in the nation, plus hosting our inaugural Mountaineer Intercollegiate at Pete Dye Golf Club is exciting. We wanted to challenge our guys with our tournament schedule and I think we have achieved that goal. This will only make us better in the long run.”



The season will commence on September 6, when the Mountaineers compete in the two-day Tiger Turning Stone Invitational at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York. Host Missouri won last season’s event with a team score of 585 for nine over par. The squad will return to West Virginia the following weekend to compete in the Joe Feaganes Marshall Invitational, hosted by the Thundering Herd on September 14 and 15 at the Guyan Golf and Country Club in Huntington.



West Virginia will head south from September 28-29, taking part in the Shoal Creek Invitational at the Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. The UAB Blazers, led by alum and PGA Tour pro Graeme McDowell will play host to the event, which has featured an impressive field including Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU, UCF and Mississippi State in past years. The team will then head to Raleigh, North Carolina, to compete in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate on October 5-6. The tournament, hosted by NC State, is set to take place at Lonnie Poole Golf Club, which has served as an NCAA regional site in recent years.



The previously announced Mountaineer Intercollegiate will be held October 19-20 and Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport. Covich and company will welcome 13 squads, including NCAA qualifiers Miami (Ohio) and Penn State in their first home tournament.



The squad will wrap up fall play from October 26-27 when they travel to Vero Beach, Florida, for the Quail Valley Intercollegiate at the Quail Valley Golf and River Club. The Mountaineers will find the course somewhat familiar, as the squad played a round at Quail Valley during their 2015 spring break trip.



On February 15, WVU will return to action for the spring season when they travel to Houston, Texas, to compete in the President’s Day Challenge. The event will be hosted by the Rice Owls at a site to be determined.



Following a short hiatus, the Mountaineers head to Tallahassee, Florida, for a three-day tournament starting March 11 hosted by Florida State at Southwood Country Club. In addition to the host Seminoles, the event has boasted a number of nationally-ranked teams in recent years including North Carolina, Penn State, Florida, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Coastal Carolina and South Florida.



On April 2-3, West Virginia will travel to Tennessee to compete at the Mason Rudolph Championship. Vanderbilt will host the tournament at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin. The host Commodores took home top honors at least year’s event, which drew a total of eight nationally ranked teams.



Next up is a trip to Covich’s old stomping grounds, as the Mountaineers compete in the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship in West Point, Mississippi. Covich spend three seasons as an assistant with host Mississippi State, and also earned a pair of degree from the institution.



West Virginia will participate in the Robert Kepler Invitational, hosted by Ohio State, at the Scarlet Course on April 9-10. Georgia Tech took home the team title last season in a field that included SMU, Michigan, UNLV, Maryland, Michigan State, Oregon State and Nebraska. The team will then wrap up the regular season at Penn State’s Rutherford Intercollegiate at the Penn State Blue Course in State College, Pennsylvania, April 16-17. The Nittany Lions won last year’s event prior to earning a spot in the NCAA Regionals.



The Mountaineers will compete in their first ever Big 12 Championships starting April 29. The three-day event will be held at the Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas. With the Big 12 reining as one of the top golf conferences in the NCAA, the tournament is slated to be full of strong competition. Last year’s event featured a pair of ranked teams, with five Big 12 programs moving on to NCAA Regional competition.



Following the league championships, the Mountaineers will have the opportunity to be selected – either as a team or individually – to NCAA Regional competitions to be held at various courses around the country May 16-18. The NCAA National Championship will take place May 29 – June 3 at the Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Oregon.



For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVU_Golf and @WVUSports on Twitter.
 
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