2008 Men's and Women's CAA Golf Championships Tee Off Friday at the Golden Horseshoe

Tribe Aiming for Conference Titles, Automatic Berths at NCAA Regional

04/17/08 8:08PM

WILLIAMSBURG - William and Mary shoots for the cup and automatic bids to the NCAA East Regional this weekend as the 2008 CAA Men's and Women's Golf Championships tee off at the Golden Horseshoe Friday-Sunday, April 18-20.

Fans can follow the action of the championships live by following the links below.

Men's Championship
Women's Championship

Scouting the Men
The men's golf team has followed a hot start to one of the best seasons in school history. At the second tournament of the year, W&M set school records for best team round, team 36-hole score, and team 54-hole score. The Tribe is led by junior sensation Brent Paladino, who has so far this season set school records for best season against par (averaging 0.5 strokes over par through 22 rounds), best season average (72.27), and a host of additional categories. Paladino also currently sits atop the career-average leaderboard with an average of 74.06 strokes per round.

Scouting the Women
The Tribe women have also put together arguably one of the best seasons in school history, and certainly the best since the 1981 national-championship season. The College has set school records for best season average against par and best 36- and 54-hole tournament averages against par, and has played especially well recently, setting the school records for best 36-hole score and 54-hole score at the Lady Seahawk Invitational last weekend. A potent one-two punch leads the team, with sophomore Morgan Stepanek leading the team in stroke average at 77.90 (second-best in school history) and senior Erika Oldenkamp standing second in average (78.59) but first in won-loss percentage (507-189-34, .718).

Relive the Season
The 2008 Golf Media Guide is the ultimate resource to the 2007-08 season and the men's and women's golf teams. Fans can browse a PDF version of the guide HERE.

Fans can also look through photo galleries of each of the Tribe's three home tournaments from 2007-08.

Men's Galleries
Women's Galleries

The Championships
The CAA men's championship is celebrating its silver anniversary at the Golden Horseshoe. 2008 is the first year that men have played in Williamsburg for the conference title since the very first championship, back in 1984 at Kingsmill Resort. This year, the 11 teams will play the Gold Course all three days, at par-71 and 6,738 yards.

The women are contesting the CAA crown for the sixth year, and the first time in Williamsburg. The 10 teams that make up the conference will play the Green Course, at par-72 and 6,150 yards.

Tee times were drawn at random for the first round, and will be assigned by the team standings for the second and third rounds, with the top-ranked teams teeing off later in the day. On Friday and Saturday, the first groups on both courses will begin play at 10 a.m., and on Sunday, the final round will start at 9 a.m.

The Course
The Golden Horseshoe is one of the most famous courses in the state, and has a history to rival many of the better-known courses throughout the world. In addition to the Green and Gold courses, both 18-hole championship layouts, the Spotswood Links are a challenging 9-hole effort.

Located in the heart of the Colonial district, the Horseshoe traces its roots to June 15, 1947, when the Williamsburg Inn opened a nine-hole course designed by groundskeeper Fred Findlay, with the first tee only 15 yards away from the current teebox for the Gold Course's first hole. The Gold Course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., who called it "my finest design" when it opened on September 11, 1964. His son, Rees Jones, designed the Green Course 15 years later, finishing the work October 24, 1981.

The Golden Horseshoe hosted some of the best tournaments in the nation in recent years, including the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links in 2004 and the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships last year. In October of 2006, playing the Gold Course at a par-70 layout that was replicated for the NCAA Championships, Brigham Young junior Daniel Summerhays shot a 10-under 60, one of only four golfers in NCAA history to shoot 60 in a round. Eight months later, on the second day of the NCAA Championships, Duke junior Michael Schachner matched that feat with a 60 of his own to make the club an even five.