ATLANTA, Ga. – March 18 marks the 17th consecutive year that 30 NCAA Division III men's golf teams gather on Jekyll Island, Georgia, to try to improve their chances of advancing to the 2016 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship, held this year in the Rochester, New York area. The Jekyll Island Invitational will include nine of the top 15 ranked teams in the nation and 13 of the top 25. The depth of the field this year includes a remarkable 23 of the top 50 teams in the nation according to the Golfstat Relative Rankings.
Top-ranked Methodist, an 8-time champion at Jekyll Island, heads up an elite field that includes No. 2 Berry and the host team, No. 4 Oglethorpe, who has won the event twice.
"When you gather this many great teams in one place, they bring a lot of talent to the table," said Oglethorpe Director of Golf Jim Owen. "The Jekyll Island Collegiate is loaded with top individual talent. Seventeen of the top 25 players on Golfstat's NCAA player rankings will test their skills against each other and 48 of the top 100, in all, will be in the field."
LaGrange cruised to a 10-stroke victory in the 2015 event. Individual medalist Mason Stutler of Methodist (9-under-par) returns to defend his title, as well.
The Jekyll Island Collegiate Invitational is a 54-hole event contested on the beautifully overseeded green fairways of the Pine Lakes golf course. The 30 men's teams come from 12 different states, from as far away as Claremont, California, and Rochester. Owen, who serves as the tournament director for this event, is pleased to be partnering with the Jekyll Island Authority again to bring about live hole-by-hole scoring and a large leaderboard at the course entrance.
"We are blessed to have the Jekyll Island Authority in our corner for this event," said Owen. "Their sponsorship allowed us to bring a huge live, scrolling LED scoreboard to the island from Magnolia Golf Group, based out of Atlanta. The scoreboard scrolls scores all day long and is a tremendous enhancement for our event."
Several years ago, Jekyll Island and Oglethorpe University brought live, player-entry scoring to the forefront of Division III golf. Combining the giant scoreboard, which scrolls team scores and individual leaders, with the immediacy of the player-entry system after every hole, the event is addictive to watch.
"So many former players, parents, coaches, friends and fans of Division III golf say they can't put their phones, tablets or laptops down once an event gets rolling," Owen continued. "It has revolutionized the way we follow college golf now. Golfstat has brought us so far since 20 years ago when scores were posted after the final round...sometimes days after the final round. Ten years ago, we started moving to daily scoring, followed by more of a live scoring model where scores were updated every nine holes for a while, then every three holes more recently. Now, with the advent of the player-entry scoring allowing for updates just seconds after a hole is played, it has brought us into a new arena. It has given Division III a unique niche within Golfstat. I think it raises the small college profile to be on the home page of Golfstat beside the big schools for 10 or 11 tournaments a year. It is a tremendous enhancement for recruiting and, of course, it is fantastic for the players' families and friends."
Live scoring will begin just after 8 a.m. on March 18 and will run through the end of the tournament on March 20. Live scoring can be accessed on golfstat.com.