Nebraska Travels to Sunshine State this Weekend

Nebraska continues its spring season this weekend, as the Huskers travel to Florida for the Emerald Coast Collegiate in Gulf Breeze, Fla. The 54-hole tournament will begin with 36 holes on Saturday, followed by the final round on Sunday.

Action at Tiger Point Country Club will begin at 7 a.m. (CST) on both Saturday and Sunday. The 13-team field features host West Florida, a powerhouse at the Division II level and six teams that played in last year's Emerald Coast Collegiate. The Huskers finished in a fourth-place tie at last year's event, finishing three rounds with a 922 team total.

Judd Cornell had a strong performance in last year's event, tying for 13th place with a 228 total, including a second-round 73. Cornell is coming into this year's event full of confidence after opening the spring season with a tie for seventh at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate last week. Cornell finished three rounds of play with a two-under 214 total, including a career-low 69 in the final round.

Cornell's performance earned him a promotion to Nebraska's No. 1 spot in the lineup for the Emerald Coast Collegiate. Senior J.J. Sullivan will play the No. 2 spot for the Huskers after tying for 23rd in last week's event. Sullivan owns the team's best stroke average at 74.63 and finished in a tie for 21st place at last year's Emerald Coast Collegiate.

Senior Chris Hartwig will play the No. 3 spot this week. Hartwig is the third Husker who played in last year's Emerald Coast event, finishing in 92nd place. Freshmen Brady Schnell and Drew Reynolds will round out the Huskers' lineup, while freshman Thomas Bethel will compete as an individual in the tournament.

This Week's Tournament
Event
Emerald Coast Collegiate

Dates
Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 28-29

Course, Location
Tiger Point Country Club, Gulf Breeze, Fla

Host School
West Florida

Participating Teams
Nebraska, West Florida,Drake, Middle Tennessee, SMS, Florida A&M,
St. Louis, Ohio U., Valdosta St., Columbus St., Ga. College & St., Wisconsin, Drexel

Sam Hall Intercollegiate Recap
The Nebraska men’s golf team fired a final-round 295 at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate to finish with a three-round total of 887, good for an eighth-place finish in the event held on Feb. 16-17. The invitational at Hattiesburg Country Club was the spring opener for the Huskers.

The Huskers opened the tournament with rounds of 302 and 290 on the opening day and stood in a tie for eighth place. Nebraska continued its solid play on day two, but six of the teams ahead of the Huskers posted rounds of 293 or better. Host Southern Mississippi captured the team title after posting a final-round 276, the lowest round of the tournament. The Golden Eagles completed three rounds of action with a cumulative team score of 849, 12 strokes in front of runner-up Stephen F. Austin. West Florida (865), Louisiana-Monroe (876), Wichita State (880), UNC-Greensboro (884), Louisiana-Lafayette (885) and Nebraska rounded out the top eight in the team standings.

Cornell fired a career-best round of 69 in the final round on the par 72, 6,950-yard Hattiesburg CC layout. Cornell's seventh-place finish was the second-best tournament finish of his Nebraska career. Sullivan finished in a tie for 23rd place at 221, while the remainder of the Huskers finished back in the pack.