May 25, 2009

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TOLEDO, Ohio - Lamar junior Hugues Joannes will open play at the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship this week, held at the Inverness Club, beginning Tuesday.

Joannes qualified for this year's championship after he finished the NCAA Austin Regional tied for fourth at 216, being the top finisher not on one of the five qualifying teams. Lamar missed out on qualifying as a team by the narrowest of margins, finishing three strokes behind Michigan for the fifth spot.

The native of Brussels, Belgium has a 72.94 stroke average and is playing some of his best golf of the season over the last month. He has posted three of his four top five finishes in the last three tournaments - tied for fourth at the Aggie Invitational, tied for fifth at the Southland Conference Championship and tied for fourth at the NCAA Regional - and has a 71.9 stroke avg. during that span.

Joannes is not immune to the championship setting, having participated in the Division II Championship as a freshman at Abilene Christian in 2007 where he finished 14th while helping the Wildcats to an eighth place team finish.

He is looking to become the second Lamar golfer to win the national championship, joining Mike Nugent who won the 1968 NCAA College Division title. Since that time, the top individual finishes have included Chris Stroud tying for third in 2003, Trevor Dodds finishing fourth in 1985 and Dawie Van Der Walt also taking fourth in 2006. Stroud's 2003 appearance was the only other time LU had an individual qualify separate from the team.

Joannes will be paired with Kyle Stanley of Clemson - who won the Ben Hogan Award as the national player of the year on Friday - and Matt Hill of North Carolina State the first two days. On Tuesday the group will tee off No. 1 in the final group of the afternoon wave at 2:05 p.m. Eastern Time. On Wednesday they will embark off No. 10 at 8:55 a.m. ET as the final group of the morning section.

The Inverness Club, which will play to a par 71 and measure 7,255 yards, has hosted four U.S. Open Championships, two PGA Championships, one U.S. Amateur Championship and one U.S. Senior Open Championship.

The championship will have a different format in 2009 as 30-team field will play 54 holes of stroke play to then determine the top eight teams for three rounds of match play to be played on Friday and Saturday. The individual medalist will be declared following Thursday's final round of stroke play.