Jan. 29, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - If the fall season is any indication, the 2010 America Sky Men's Golf Conference Championship will be a wide-open affair. During the recently-completed fall season, nine different individuals from seven different teams earned conference Golfer of the Week, making the conference championship in Edinburg, Texas, one to look forward to this spring.

Among the nine winners of the weekly award, two individuals captured tournament titles, two were runners-up and one other placed third. Arguably the top performance of the fall season came from Steve Binde from Northern Colorado, who won the prestiguous Air Force Gene Miranda Invitational September 19-20, with a 10-under par 206 total, a whopping four shots ahead of Austin Hurt from Washington State. The junior from St. Paul, Minn., shot rounds of 68-69-69 on the tough Eisenhower course.

Nick Despain from Weber State also produced a dominating performance, earning weekly honors in winning the individual title by three shots at the Utah Collegiate Shootout October 17 at Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah. The junior from Farr West, Utah, shot rounds of 67 and 68 to run away with the event.

The America Sky recently announced that men's golf-playing members from the Great West Conference joined the league before the fall season and were considered for Player of the Week honors. Current members of the America Sky are Binghamton, Chicago State, Hartford, Houston Baptist, Northern Colorado, North Dakota, Sacramento State, South Dakota, Texas-Pan American, Utah Valley and Weber State.

A list of the weekly winners from the fall 2009 is below:

September 6th-12th - Michael Surdey (Binghamton) - Missouri Turning Stone Inter - t11th - 75-72-80=227 (+11)

September 13th-19th - Grant Rappleye (Sac State) - Washington St. Cougar Invite - 6th - 70-71-73=214 (-2)

September 20th-26th - Steve Bidne (N. Colorado) - Air Force Gene Miranda - 1st - 68-69-69=206 (-10)

September 27th-3rd - Jake Johnson (Sac State) - Utah & Weber State Invite - 2nd - 67-69-73 (-7)

October 4th-10th - Pat Thomas (North Dakota) - Firestone Frill Invite (Cal Poly) - T4th - 67-73-75=215 (+2)

October 11th-17th - Nick Despain (Weber State) - Utah College Shootout - 1st - 68-67=135 (-9)

October 18th-24th - Jake Katz (Binghamton) - Seton Hall Invitational - T2nd - 71-74=145 (+1)

October 25th-31st - Nick MacDonald (Hartford) - ODU Seascape Invitational - 2nd - 73-65=138 (-2)

November 1st-7th - Kevin Kirakossian (UTPA) - UTPA Classic - T3rd - 76-73-74=223 (+7)

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