Nov. 17, 2006
LAS VEGAS - UNLV junior Jarred Texter is included among the nation's premier collegiate golfers headed to El Paso, Texas, this weekend for the 32nd edition of the Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic, slated for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at El Paso Country Club.
Texter earned honorable mention All-America honors last season as a sophomore and was a 2006 first team All-Mountain West Conference selection. He has twice been named to the MWC All-Academic team (2005, 2006) and opened up the fall with a pair of back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Inverness Intercollegiate (eighth) and the Tucker Invitational (second).
This year's All-America Golf Classic features eight Golfweek preseason first team All-Americans - Rhys Davies (East Tennessee State), Billy Horschel (Florida), Dustin Johnson (Coastal Carolina), Pablo Martin (Oklahoma State), Jonathan Moore (Oklahoma State), Cameron Tringale (Georgia Tech) and Dawie Van der Walt (Lamar). In all, 18 players in the field earned preseason All-America honors.
This year's field includes three members of the 2006 U.S. Palmer Cup team - Chris Kirk (Georgia), Kevin Larsen (Georgia Tech) and Luke List (Vanderbilt). Three members of 2006 European Palmer Cup squad are also in field - Davies, Martin and Mark Haastrup (Georgia State).
Also in the field this year is returning champion Luke List, who will be making his third appearance in El Paso. Both medalists from last season's NCAA Division I and Division II Championships are set to compete in this year's event. Oklahoma State's Moore took top honors at the Division I Championships and paced Oklahoma State to their 10th NCAA title. Jamie Amoretti of St. Mary's University won the Division II title, as the Rattlers finished ninth.
In all, there are 28 golfers in the field, representing 21 schools.
Nine players will be returning to El Paso - Davies, Kirk, List, Martin, Johnson, Van der Walt, Brendon Todd (Georgia), Martin Ureta (North Carolina) and Alex Prugh (Washington). List won the event last year by one stroke over Kirk.
The tournament, hosted by the Sun Bowl Association, is played at the Par-71, 6,837-yard El Paso Country Club.
Throughout the years, many Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic competitors have gone on to pursue successful careers in the Professional Golfers' Association of America and on the PGA Tour. Some of the past champions include Ricky Barnes (2000), Notah Begay (1994), David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999), Davis Love III (1984), Chris Nallen (2003), Jerry Pate (1974) and Tiger Woods (1995).
Alumni of the Golf Classic have gone on to earn more than $909 million on the PGA Tour. In all, 125 colleges and universities have participated in the tournament, raising more than $590,000 in scholarship money for the participating institutions.
Each university is awarded a $1,000 scholarship if a golfer from that school competes in the tournament.
Following is a schedule of events (times are MST):
Sunday, Nov. 19Titleist Long Drive Contest (9 a.m.)PING Putting Contest (10 a.m.)Practice round (noon)
Monday, Nov. 20First and second rounds, 36 holes (7:30 a.m.)
Tuesday, Nov. 21Final round, 18 holes (7:30 a.m.)Trophy presentation (following final round, approximately 1 p.m.)
