The Hall Opens Grier Jones Shocker Invite, Monday

NEWTON, KAN. - The Seton Hall men's golf team returns to tournament action for three rounds of golf at the Grier Jones Shocker Invitational, October 9-10, at Sand Creek Station.

Tournament Details:
GRIER JONES SHOCKER INVITATIONAL
Host: Wichita State University
Location: Newton, Kan.
Course: Sand Creek Station
Course Vitals: Par-72, 7,367 yards
Dates: October 9-10, 2023

THE COURSE:
The course plays on the town's railroad history, and many holes are, as they say in Scotland, "hard by the cinders," continuing a century's old tradition of golf bordering railways. We have also recreated the famous Road Hole green on our 16th Hole, which once sat adjacent to a railway. Another replicates the famous "Redan" from North Berwick, Scotland. Other holes have characteristics of early American holes, which also fronted railways at one time. The 12th hole for example, is similar to the fourth at the National Golf Links of America, one of our early classics. The ninth features a small platform green; typical of early American courses while the green on the par 5 fourth has some wild contours, seldom built these days.

Despite playing on these old-style characteristics, the course is thoroughly modern in other ways. The 10th is a long par 5 requiring negotiation of water on all three shots. The 18th is a long par 4 requiring a tee shot to a narrow fairway between flanking fairway bunkers. On the front nine, the long sixth may be the toughest hole.

The course also makes use of the site's best natural features, with holes 1, 2, 8 and 9 bordering Sand Creek itself. Great care was taken to utilize every existing tree to enhance golf holes strategy and character. Several ponds have been built to enhance aesthetics and a few influence play.

THE FIELD:
In addition to Seton Hall and host Wichita State, the field includes 14 other schools: Abilene Christian, Air Force, Denver, Drake, Hutch CC, LaSalle, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma State, Rice, SIU-Edwardsville, Texas-Arlington, Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

THE FORMAT:
Teams will play five golfers and count the four lowest scores per round.

THE LINEUP:
Here's Seton Hall's lineup for the Grier Jones Shocker Invitational…

Wenliang Xie, Graduate
Wanxi Sun, Senior
George Fricker, Junior
Jack Bosworth, Sophomore
Patrick Kahanek, Sophomore

LAST TIME OUT:
Senior Wanxi Sun (Danville, Calif.) fired a 2-under-par, 68, to lift the Pirates to a second-place finish at The Macdonald Cup on Sept. 24.

Sun had five birdies and 10 pars to fuel his 2-under-par, 68, in round three. For the tournament, he tied for ninth place among 72 individual golfers with a 6-over-par, 78-70-68-216.

As a team, The Hall climbed the leader board to second place in the final standings after a 2-over-par, 282, in round three, the top round in the field. For the tournament, the Pirates shot a 21-over-par, 288-291-282-861. It's the fourth-best par-70, three-round score in Seton Hall history. The Hall finished five strokes behind the team champion and host, Yale. BIG EAST opponents Georgetown finished in third place at 30-over-par, and St. John's, finished in eighth place at 51-over-par.

THE SCHEDULE:
The teams will play 36 continuous holes on Monday, and one final round on Sunday. Both days will begin with a shotgun start at 9:30 a.m. ET. The Pirates will be paired with golfers from La Salle for the first two rounds. Xie and Fricker will start on hole No. 7, while Kahanek and Sun will begin on hole No. 8. Bosworth will begin on hole No. 6A with golfers from LaSalle, Northern Iowa and Drake.

THE RESULTS:
Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament via Golfstat.com. Complete results of each day's events will also be available following competition at SHUpirates.com.