Oct. 5, 2008

(South Bend, IN) - USF men's golf travels to South Bend to compete against a strong national field in the 2008 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic, beginning with 36 holes Monday October 6 at the Warren Golf Course. The Dons are fresh off a team victory at the 2008 Saint Mary's Tournament last week at Poppy Hills and have posted consecutive top-five finishes.

San Francisco arrived in South Bend Saturday and watched Notre Dame take on Stanford in football at Notre Dame Stadium. Now the Dons turn their attention towards tackling the Warren Golf Course, which will play at par-70, 7,023 yards in the 54-hole event.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT: Teams will play the first two rounds (36 holes) on Monday, beginning with a shotgun start for round one at 8:45 a.m. (ET) and featuring continuous play into the second round. Tuesday's final round will be a split-tee start based upon the 36-hole standings, with teams going off from the first and 10th tees beginning at 8:20 a.m. (ET).

LIVE TOURNAMENT SCORING: Live scoring is available for the Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic via the Golfstat web site (www.golfstat.com). In addition, complete results following each day's action will be posted on the official USF athletics web site (www.USFDons.com).

TOURNAMENT FIELD: No. 31 Arkansas, UC Davis, DePaul, Iowa, No. 27 Lamar, Michigan State, Minnesota, UNC Greensboro, North Florida, Notre Dame, Notre Dame `B', San Diego, San Francisco, Southeastern Louisiana, Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth.

COURSE DETAILS: A par-70, 7,023-yard layout designed by PGA Tour veteran (and 2002 World Golf Hall of Famer) Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, the Warren Golf Course on the Notre Dame campus is based on a traditional "walkable" Irish and American courses favored around the turn of the 20th century. The course winds its way through 250 wooded acres and is based on subtleties rather than special effects, including small, undulating greens and 88 strategically-placed bunkers which were recently renovated as part of a course-wide improvement project. The Warren Golf Course has been rated one of the nation's top 15 collegiate courses by Golf Digest (Sept. 2005 issue) and has played host to several championship events.