TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo men's golf team will host some of the nation's top teams and players at the 16th-annual Inverness Intercollegiate on Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 26-27 at the Inverness Club. The 54-hole tournament will be played on a par-71, 7,265-yard layout that has hosted numerous major golf championships. Admission is free for the event that will begin with 36 holes on Monday (8:45 a.m. shotgun start) followed by the final 18 holes on Tuesday (8:30 a.m. tee times on Holes No. 1 and 10).
 
The Inverness Club was founded in 1903, and along with the University of Toledo, served as host for the 2009 NCAA Men's Golf Championships. Inverness hosted the 2021 Solheim Cup in addition to previously hosting four U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, two PGA Championships and one U.S. Amateur. In the future, Inverness will host the 2027 U.S. Women's Open and the 2029 U.S. Amateur.

All 16 schools competing in this year's tournament were ranked in the Top 100 of last year's Golfweek final rankings. Highlighting the field are five 2022 NCAA Championship participants – East Tennessee State, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech - and seven more 2022 NCAA Regional qualifiers – Charlotte, Louisville, Notre Dame, Purdue, SMU, Virginia and Washington. The Sooners and Red Raiders both lost in the quarterfinals of match play at the NCAA Championships. Also competing in the tournament along with the Rockets will be Iowa, USC, and South Alabama.

Oklahoma was ranked No. 4 in the first Bushnell/Golfweek Division I Coaches Poll and will be joined in the Glass City by No. 6 Georgia Tech, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 20 Notre Dame and No. 22 Washington. Also receiving votes in the poll were Ohio State, Purdue, SMU and Virginia.

The tournament will also feature the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings in Texas Tech's Ludvig Aberg.  Other individuals ranked in the Top 100 are Georgia Tech's Ross Steelman (No. 24), Ohio State's Maxwell Moldovan (No. 27), Virginia's Ben James (No. 31), Georgia Tech's Christo Lamprecht (No. 39), Notre Dame's Palmer Jackson (No. 43), Louisville's Jiri Zuska (No. 51), East Tennessee State's Archie Davies (No. 52), Texas Tech's Bard Skogan (No. 53), Georgia Tech's Connor Howe (No. 59), Georgia Tech's Bartley Forrester (No. 61), Notre Dame's Taichi Kho (No. 80), Oklahoma's Drew Goodman (No. 81), and Virginia's Pietro Bovari (No. 93).

Texas Tech will be looking to defend its title from 2019 when it finished two strokes shy of the course record with an impressive 12-under par 272 in the final round to finish at four-over par 856. The Red Raiders outdistanced defending champion Tennessee (864) by eight strokes and Notre Dame (865) by nine shots.
 
The Inverness Intercollegiate will be Toledo's third tournament this fall. The Rockets opened their season on Sept. 4-5 by capturing a share of the Island Resort Intercollegiate with a score of eight-under par 856.

Senior NJ Botha and junior Barend Botha are leading the Rockets with 70.0 and 70.2 stroke averages, respectively. Freshman Bence Kotel has a 71.8 scoring mark, while junior Jamie Tofte Nielsen has a 72.5 average.
  
ESPN+ COVERAGE
A portion of Tuesday's final round can be viewed on ESPN+ with a scheduled air time of 12:00-3:00 p.m. It will mark the third men's golf tournament that The University of Toledo's Department of Communication and Athletic Department have teamed up to televise this event. Since its inception in the 2015-16 academic year, the Rockets have produced events for ESPN3 and ESPN+ in baseball, basketball, golf, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball.

LIVE SCORING
• Live scoring for the Inverness Intercollegiate can be found at golfstatresults.com.

THE INVERNESS INTERCOLLEGIATE
The Rockets posted their best two finishes at the Inverness Intercollegiate with a third-place showing in 2011 and a fifth-place standing in 2002. Dugan Murphy fired a five-under par 66 in 2011's rain-shortened event and is the only Rocket to win the tournament.
 
ELITE GOLFERS AT INVERNESS
Some of the golfers who have played at the Inverness Club during their collegiate careers rank among the best in professional golf. They include major champions Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina), Brooks Koepka (Florida State), Colin Morikowa (California) and Patrick Reed (Augusta) as well as current President Cup players Billy Horschel (Florida) and Corey Conners (Kent State). Some former Inverness Intercollegiate participants who have played professionally include Viktor Hovland (Oklahoma State), Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State), Hudson Swafford (Georgia), Nick Watney (Fresno State), Graeme McDowell (UAB), Jimmy Walker (Baylor), Alex Noren (Oklahoma State), Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State), Jonas Blixt (Florida State), Anthony Kim (Oklahoma), Luke List (Vanderbilt), Kyle Stanley (Clemson), Jamie Lovemark (USC), Brian Harman (Georgia) and J.B. Holmes (Kentucky).

ON THE HORIZON
The Rockets will return to action on Sunday-Monday, Oct. 9-10 at East Tennessee State's Bank of Tennessee Collegiate in Jonesborough, Tenn.