April 4, 2004

AUGUSTA, Ga. - With a final round 302, the Wake Forest men's golf team dropped to a seventh place finish after the final round of the Cleveland Golf/Augusta State Invitational. The two-day, 54-hole event took place at Forest Hills Golf Club with 18 teams - including 10 ranked among the nation's top 25 - participating on the par 72, 7,231-yard layout.

Sitting in second place after 36 holes, the Demon Deacons struggled during Sunday's final round, carding a 14-over 302. Minnesota overcame UCLA, the 36-hole leader, to claim team champion honors with a three-under 861. The Golden Gophers were the only team to finish under par for the tournament and the only team to shoot under par on Sunday. UCLA and Duke tied for second at 866 (+2), host Augusta State was fourth at seven-over and Georgia finished fifth at 10-over 874. Clemson, the defending national champions, placed sixth at 12-over, one stroke ahead of WFU, which finished with a 13-over 877.

Wake's Bill Haas turned in three straight rounds under par this weekend (67-71-70), but surrendered his first-round lead as Clemson's Matt Hendrix defeated Duke's Nathan Smith in a one-hole playoff for individual medalist honors. Hendrix and Smith tied for first at nine-under 207, while Haas completed the ACC trifecta, one stroke back at eight-under 208.

Deacon sophomore Kyle Reifers picked up his fifth top-10 finish of the season, tying for 10th at even-par 216 (72-71-73). Reifers was three-under through 16 on Sunday, but birdied holes 17 and 18 to get back to one-over par for the day.

After putting himself in a good position with opening scores of 72 and 73, freshman Chad Wilcox turned in an 80 on Sunday, dropping to a tie for 52nd at nine-over 225. Wilcox did record WFU's only eagle of the tournament, on the 541-yard hole No. 9 in his first round.

Freshman Sean Moore and senior Buck Williams also encountered troubles on Sunday. Moore carded a 79 to finish 71st overall at 12-over 228 (77-72-79. Williams put up an 85 in the final round, placing 89th with a 21-over 237.

Full results, individual scorecards and statistics from the Cleveland Golf/Augusta State Invitational are available at www.golfstat.com.

The Demon Deacons return to action next weekend, April 9-10, at The Intercollegiate at MacGregor Downs in Raleigh, N.C.