Kent State University
Ka’anapali Classic
No. 14 Men's Golf one of 11 top-100 teams in Ka'anapali Classic field
11/3/2017 4:36:00 PM | Men's Golf
LAHAINA, Hawaii – Kent State's 18th-ranked men's golf team is in beautiful West Maui to do more than just experience paradise. The Golden Flashes arrived on Maui this week to compete against another elite field at the Ka'anapali Classic.
"Eleven of the top 100 college teams in the nation, of which we are one, will compete here this week," said Kent State men's golf coach Herb Page. "Three of those teams are in the top 20 with us LSU (No. 12) and Cal (No. 15). And there are some other great teams from big conferences like Kansas (No. 48), West Virginia, Indiana, South Carolina (No. 40), and Houston, along with some teams that are sneaky good like Wyoming (No. 34), Boise State, and Pepperdine. Those are some top-100 teams that we don't get to see very often."
For the first time this season, Kent State will compete head-to-head with schools from the Mid-American Conference as Bowling Green and Ball State are also in the field.
"Adding this tournament to our schedule is a great opportunity for our players and our problem," said Page. "This is the first time everybody on our team has been to Hawaii. So it's a real experience. It's also an opportunity to play in a big-time tournament that doesn't count against our schedule."
The NCAA allows for 24 days of competition. The Ka'anapali Classic is one of a small handful of spring events called "non-counters."
"Teams get a waiver to play in this three-day, 54-hole tournament," said Page. "It's kind of like men's basketball, where a team can play three or four games in an exempt tournament and it only counts as one day of competition."
The event will be played over the same Robert Trent Jones Senior-designed Royal Kaanapali Golf Course that has played host to the Senior Skins Game. In 2011, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson teamed up to win on the 6,700-yard, par-71 course.
"It's a beautiful resort course that is generous off the tee with wide-open fairways," said Page. "It's not very long, but the challenge is the greens and the chipping areas around the green with big, thick Bermuda rough. We needed to have a good day of practice to get used to it. That kind of rough is not something we see very often, so it's going to be a challenge for our team. West coast and desert teams that are used to it will have an advantage this week, but we are excited about the challenge."
You can follow live scoring all weekend long on golfstat.com.
