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BILOXI – Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Mississippi State men’s golf teams will combine to host the Fallen Oak Collegiate Invitational this weekend for what has become one of the most prestigious autumn tournaments in college golf.
Rick Cleveland
Joining the three Mississippi teams at the highly acclaimed Tom Fazio-designed Fallen Oak course will be top-ranked Arkansas, No. 4 Alabama, Florida State, No. 14 Georgia, No. 12 Illinois, No. 20 Ohio State, Iowa, LSU, South Carolina, No. 9 Tennessee, Wake Forest and Wisconsin. Ole Miss coach Chris Malloy says there is a long waiting list of teams that want to get into the Fallen Oak field.
All 15 teams in the field are ranked in the top 100 in the NCAA Division I rankings. Mississippi State is No. 34, Ole Miss No. 37 and Southern Miss No. 57.
“You won’t find a better college golf field anywhere in the country this fall,” said Southern Miss golf coach Eddie Brescher, whose Golden Eagles qualified for the NCAA Tournament last spring for the first time in school history.
“This tournament just keeps growing in stature, This is a post-season quality field for a fall tournament.”
Árni Sveinsson
LSU and Alabama tied for the team title at Fallen Oak last fall, and LSU’s Gunnlaugur Arni Sveinsson, from Iceland, won the individual championship and returns to defend his title. Sveinsson, the world’s No. 8 ranked amateur golfer, shot rounds of 66, 70 and 67 for a 54-hole total of 13-under-par 203 for the victory, one shot better than Alabama’s William Jennings, who also will return to Fallen Oak.
Said Iowa coach Tyler Stith a year ago at Fallen Oak, “I have been coaching college golf for 15 years, and this is one of the best tournaments I’ve ever been a part of. The tournament operations and hospitality is first-class and the golf course itself is as good as any we play in college golf. This is our third year to play here, and I sure hope we get invited back.”
Championship play for the 54-hole event begins Saturday and continues through Monday. Admission is free to the public, and large-screen televisions will be strategically placed around the course so that football fans can keep up with their favorite teams on a big college football Saturday and with NFL games on Sunday.
