University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
UL Swings Away At SBC Championship
4/24/2011 8:18:00 PM | Golf
Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns golf team tees off Monday in search of its fourth Sun Belt title at the 2011 Club Glove Sun Belt Golf Championship in Muscle Shoals, Ala.
This year's championship will be held on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Fighting Joe Course at The Shoals, in Muscle Shoals, Ala., April 25-27.
Tournament action begins at 7:30 a.m. on Monday and will continue until Wednesday, April 27.
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at The Shoals is home to two 18-hole championship courses and lies between the Wheeler and Wilson dams on the Tennessee River. The Fighting Joe is long, and this links style course is simply good straight-forward golf.
The last conference championship for the Cajuns came in 2007, but Andrew Noto, Philipp Fendt, Chris Weninger, Thomas Petts and Ethan Savoy look to bring home the trophy for UL in 2011.
"We've been playing well lately," said UL head coach Theo Sliman. "We know what we are capable of doing. Now is the time to get out there and do it."
In the past two SBC Championships, the Cajuns have finished in fourth place. But with Fendt and Noto among the top-10 in the Sun Belt, UL's chances look to be improving.
Fendt, currently ranked 126th in Golfweek.com's collegiate rankings, has averaged 72.6 strokes per round this season. His scoring averaged ranks sixth in the league and through nine tournaments, the junior has yet to finish outside of the top-20. His best performance of the year was a 3-under showing at the Oak Hills Invitational where he finished in a tie for third place.
Noto, ranked 184th by Golfweek.com, is ninth in the league with a 72.90 scoring average. In 10 tournaments this season, Noto has placed in the top-20 eight times. Earlier this season he finished in second place after blitzing the Sam Intercollegiate with a final tally of 11-under.
In his freshman season, Chris Weninger has made a big impact on the squad. In his last four tournaments, Weninger has finished in the top-15, including a fourth-place finish at the UALR First Tee Collegiate Classic. The Austrian native has averaged 74.23 strokes per round this season.
Petts and Savoy have both seen significant action this season. Petts has played in five tournaments in his senior season with his best showing coming at the Louisiana Classics, finishing tied for 21st.
In his sophomore season, Savoy has played in seven tournaments. In just the third tournament earlier this season, the Lafayette native posted 3-over at the Memphis Intercollegiate to lead the Cajuns and finish in a tie for third place overall.
In addition to being crowned the 2011 SBC League Champion, the winning team will receive the League's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship field and, if the individual medalist comes from a separate team, he would also advance to the NCAA Championship field.
