Lady Bucs set to host Wendy's Invitational this week

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – The Charleston Southern Lady Bucs will host the 5^th Annual Wendy’s Invitational beginning on Monday at Rivertowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

The 54-hole event begins Monday morning with a shotgun start beginning at 8:45 a.m. There are 36 holes scheduled for Monday, with Tuesday’s final round set to shotgun at 9 a.m. and an awards ceremony scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

Rivertowne Country Club is an award-winning course which received 4.5 stars in “Golf Digest’s Places to Play,” and has been named the South Carolina Course of the Year. The par-72 layout will play at just over 6,000 yards for the event.

“I would like to thank Mike Giunta and Wendy’s for their continued support of our event,” CSU Director of Golf Mike Wilson said Sunday. “Rivertowne is an outstanding golf course and will be a challenge for this very deep field. We are looking forward to continuing to grow this event.”

The 12-team field features Big South Conference members Presbyterian and Radford. The rest of the field includes: Appalachian State, Armstrong Atlantic State, The Citadel, Limestone, Loyola University of Chicago, Presbyterian, Radford, Richmond, USC-Beaufort, USC-Upstate, Western Carolina, and Wofford, as well as individuals from College of Charleston.

"Our girls are really excited for this challenge at Rivertowne against a very good field," CSU Head Coach Matthew Cram-Smith. "They all love playing here and the course is in great shape, so hopefully we can continue the momentum from our last event and keep improving. I'm really proud of how hard the girls have worked preparing for this tournament, especially mentally." 

CSU will plays its opening round with Wofford and Western Carolina. The Lady Bucs won the inaugural tournament in 2008. Marshall won last year’s event with a two-round 605.

Charleston Southern is led by senior Katelyn Bensch and Amanda D’Ostroph. Both are averaging rounds of 77.8 through nine rounds this season. Bensch was named to the Eat-A-Peach All-Tournament Team last month as CSU took second at the event in Jekyll Island.

Junior Torey Johnson and freshman Casey MacNeil are CSU’s two top scorers on average to this point in the fall season. Both are averaging rounds of 76.7. Johnson leads the team with 15 birdies through nine rounds.

The Lady Bucs wrap up the fall portion of their schedule Oct. 28-29 at the Palmetto Intercollegiate on John’s Island.

-CSU-