Men's Golf: Vanderbilt Commodore Athletics

Men's Golf
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SEC Men's Golf Championship
April 21-23, 2000 • Turtle Point Yacht & Country Club • Killen, Ala.

Men's Golf Statistics

Vanderbilt Confident Heading Into SECs
The Vanderbilt Commodores enter the 2000 SEC Men's Golf Championships with confidence on their side. They just finished arguably the best regular season in school history, which included the team's best 54-hole score (852) in school history. The Commodores will be looking to improve on their 12th-place finish at last year's SEC Championship.

Vanderbilt Veteran
Junior Ryan Grant must feel like the wily ole veteran on this year's Commodore golf team. He is the only one of the five Vanderbilt golfers competing this weekend who was on the team at the beginning of last season. The Miami, Fla., native has been the constant while watching two freshmen, a transfer from Wake Forest and a former Commodore golfer join the squad since he began his sophomore campaign. Grant leads the team in stroke average and is 24th in the SEC with a mark of 73.86. He is tied for second on the team with two top-10 finishes and has led the team in three tournaments. His best performance came at the Seminole Intercollegiate when he fired a three-under-par 213 to finish tied for fifth, five shots off the lead.

Snedeker Makes Name for Himself
Brandt Snedeker's consistent play throughout his freshman campaign has earned him serious consideration for SEC Freshman of the Year honors. He leads the team with three top-10 finishes and is second on the team with a 73.86 stroke average. Snedeker, the brother of former Ole Miss golfer Haymes Snedeker, has been the team leader in two tournaments, including the Alabama Spring Invitational where he recorded career bests with his five-under-par 211 and his fifth-place finish.

Dynamite Pickup
Ned Michaels is another of the Commodores who took an unusual path to Vanderbilt. Michaels began his playing career at Wake Forest in 1996, but after just one season with the Demon Deacons, he walked away from the game. Michaels transferred to Vanderbilt prior to the 1999 spring semester and decided to join the golf team. Since then, he has been a solid contributor to the Commodores' success. In just his second tournament with Vanderbilt last spring, he finished in a tie for 11th at the Golden Ocala Intercollegiate to help propel the team to its first tournament win in a decade. This season, he is third on the team with a 74.48 stroke average and has posted two top-10 finishes. One of those top-10s was a third-place finish at the Pepperdine STRATA Intercollegiate, which is the best performance for a Commodore this season.

The Road Less Traveled
Junior John Pitt has traveled an interesting road to this year's SEC Championship. After his freshman year in which he played in four tournaments, he decided to quit the team. After two years away from the Vanderbilt program, Pitt returned to the team this past fall and quickly became an integral part of the Commodores' success. He is fourth on the team in stroke average (74.81) and has competed in all but one tournament this season. He fired the team's lowest round of the season, a 67, in the first round of the Gator Invitational. Pitt ended up finishing tied for eighth at the Gator Invitational, one of his two top-10 finishes this season.

Youth Movement
The Commodores entered the 1999-2000 season with hopes of making great strides toward their ultimate goal of winning SEC and NCAA Championships. Key to those hopes was a strong freshman class led by Brandt Snedeker and Nick Manthey. Snedeker and Manthey have combined to lead Vanderbilt in three tournaments this season. Currently, Snedeker is second on the team in stroke average (74.03) and Manthey is fifth (75.61).

Michaels Receives Rudolph Cup
Ned Michaels received the inaugural Craig Rudolph Memorial Cup, which will be presented to the team's top qualifier each season. The purpose of the award is to create a sense of tradition for the golf program and to honor the memory of Craig Rudolph. Craig Rudolph, the late son of Vanderbilt Director of Golf and long-time PGA Tour player Mason Rudolph, was a gifted golfer and an outstanding individual. He excelled playing the sport at every level from juniors to the collegiate level to the amateur ranks and finally the PGA Tour. In 1988, he was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and in 1994 he was selected to the OVC's All-Time Team. After leaving the Tour, Rudolph remained around the game as a golf professional at Nashville's Springhouse Golf Club and then later at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. He was last the head professional at Ballantyne Country Club in North Carolina.

What a Round of Golf
One of the highlights of this season for the Commodores was the first round of the Alabama Spring Invitational. In a tournament packed with Vanderbilt's South Region foes, the Commodores fired a school-record 11-under-par 277 score to finish the first day in second place. Included in the round was Brandt Snedeker's four-under-par 68, John Pitt's and Ned Michaels' three-under-par 69s, Nick Manthey's one-under-par 71 and Ryan Grant's even-par 72. It was the first time in school history all five golfers shot even par or better in the same round.

Commodores Shine in Pair of Tournaments
Vanderbilt found unprecedented success in two of the first three tournaments this spring. At the Gator Invitational, the Commodores recorded a school-record score of 852 on the par-70 course. Junior John Pitt was the team leader after shooting a four-under-par score of 206 to finish tied for eighth. Three weeks later at the Seminole Classic, Vanderbilt finished third with a three-over-par team score of 867. The third-place finish was the team's best since taking the team title at the 1999 Golden Ocala Intercollegiate. The team score of 867 was second-best this season, and when compared with the other scores from par-72 courses, it ranks among the school's best ever. Vanderbilt top performer was junior Ryan Grant, who fired a three-under-par 213 to finish tied for fifth.