The University of Toledo men’s golf team will welcome top-tier programs from around the country to Toledo on Monday and Tuesday when the Rockets host the 14th annual Inverness Intercollegiate.
This will be the first college tournament played on the Inverness course following major renovations that were completed earlier this year.
“It’s definitely going to be a big change from last year’s Intercollegiate,” Toledo senior Spencer Shoemaker said. “Last year, the course was undergoing those renovations. This year, all the renovations are done and it’s looking unbelievable out there. It’s tougher, I think. They extended the course by a few hundred yards. They have some good, tough holes out there.”
Toledo is rolling out all the stops as they welcome a field that includes Butler, Dayton, Fresno State, Louisiana, Mercer, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Saint Mary’s (Calif.), St. Bonaventure, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Last season, UT coach Jeff Roope was in his first year with the program and said he didn’t have as much time to prepare for the tournament.
“While it was a good event [last season], we left a lot on the table where we could really ramp it up and make it into something special,” Roope said. “Last year was good, but I think this year will be great and, in the future years hopefully, it’s one of the best collegiate tournaments in the country.”
This year, there will be a three-hour window on Tuesday that will be on ESPN3.
“You normally have to make it to the NCAA championship, to the match-play rounds almost, in order to have television coverage,” Roope said. “The idea that we have three hours of coverage on ESPN3, and it’s a feed that can be picked up anywhere, that is pretty significant.”
Toledo has a history of bringing elite individual talent to the Inverness Intercollegiate with Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina), Brooks Koepka (Florida State), and Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State) among the names who have made stops in Toledo for the tournament before successful professional careers.
“This is sort of the linchpin to our success, because if you invite teams here, then they invite you to their place,” Roope said. “When you get invited to some of the top events, then the recruits want to come to play in those events and they want to play the home course of Inverness. It all ties together.”
The UT coaches and players do not take for granted they have a course like Inverness in their backyard.
“It’s a one of a kind,” Shoemaker said. “Not too many college programs can say they have a top-30 course in the world as their home course. We are very blessed and thankful for the opportunity to have this facility.”
“We’re less than two miles from one of the best golf courses in the entire world,” Roope added. “To be able to have access to this kind of golf course, that close to home, it’s a completely remarkable, unimaginable advantage for us.”
Contact Brian Buckey at bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.
First Published September 23, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
