Junior Stefan Wiedergruen |
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Nationally-Ranked Golf Team Opens Season in Japan
Watch the 49ers All-Access Topy Cup Preview VideoSept. 4, 2008
Charlotte, N.C. - The Charlotte 49ers nationally-ranked golf team will open its 2008-09 season at the prestigious Topy Cup in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 9-11. The tournament includes three other American colleges: Lamar, New Mexico and UC-Irvine.
"All the guys couldn't be more excited," said 49ers head coach Jamie Green. "As a program we know it's a great honor to be invited to the Topy Cup. It always has some of the best of the best of American universities heading over there. It's the most unique of experiences. Our players won't be able to trade it for anything else they go through in college golf. The city and the community there is so supportive. To have the children in the town come out and watch and everybody take days off to see our teams play is something you couldn't trade for the world."
The 49ers have competed in each of the last four NCAA Tournaments, becoming the first program in school history to reach four straight NCAA Tournaments. They are one of only nine schools, nationwide, that have reached the 30-team NCAA Finals in each of the last three years. Charlotte has finished in the Top 10 in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments, with a tie for eighth-place last year and a tie for third place in 2007. In fact, the 49ers join Georgia, Stanford and UCLA as the only four teams in the nation that have posted back-to-back top 10 finishes at the last two NCAA Championships.
At the Topy Cup, the 49ers will be paired with two Japanese universities, each round.
"That will great for our guys and it's neat for our team to be exposed to that experience. We have diversity on the team and have for quite a while. We have players from different countries and players from different continents and this is just a wonderful opportunity for those guys to open up those experiences even more."
Charlotte is ranked 13th in the Golf World/Nike Preseason Coaches' poll. Both New Mexico and UC-Irvine are receiving votes in that poll.
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Charlotte's 15 wins over the last three years ties Lamar for the most tourney wins in the nation over that time span. In the last four years, Lamar has won a nation's best 18 events while Charlotte boasts 17 wins, tied for second most in the country with Oklahoma State.
The 49ers return two starters from last year's squad, which was one of six teams in the country to be ranked in the final top 10 of all three major polls (Golf World/GCAA; Golfstat; Golfweek).
Junior Corey Nagy (Charlotte, N.C.; Vance H.S.) was second on the team with a 72.14 stroke average as a sophomore. A two-time honorable mention all-America, Nagy placed 16th individually at the 2008 NCAA Championships and was named to the five-man GCAA Freshman all-America team in 2007.
Senior Stefan Wiedergruen (Waiblingen, Germany; Salier Gymnasium) spent time last year as the top-ranked collegiate golfer in the country. He finished the year third on the team with a 72.43 golf average with a pair of individual tournament titles and four top five finishes.
Senior David Rawluk (Dublin, Ireland), junior Blake Stark (Canton, Ga.) and sophomore Will Golden (Auburn, Ala.) round out the 49ers lineup for the Topy Cup.
