Nov. 20, 2011
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ATLANTA – All-American James White joins two dozen of the nation’s top collegiate golfers in the Western Refining All-American Golf Classic Monday and Tuesday at the El Paso Country Club in El Paso, Texas. The field for the 54-hole event includes seven of the top 11 amateur golfers in the world.
The event begins with 36 holes Monday and concludes with an 18-hole round Tuesday. The field is comprised primarily of 2010 All-Americans and U.S. Walker Cup team members.
Three Tech golfers have captured the title in the history of the event – David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999) and Nicholas Thompson (2004).
The field includes seven of the top 11 amateur golfers in the world, according to the R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings – Texas’ Jordan Spieth, Washington’s Chris Williams, Texas A&M’s Jordan Russell, Arkansas Sebastian Cappelen, Stanford’s Andrew Yun, San Diego State’s J.J. Spaun and Illinois Luke Guthrie.
“The weather is awesome! Scenery is beautiful, it is surrounded by mountains,” said White. “It’s a great honor considering the alumni from this event have earned over $1 billion on tour.”
White earned first-team All-America honors in 2011 by the Golf Coaches Association of America and earned a spot on the GCAA’s All-Nicklaus team and on the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team. The senior from Acworth, Ga., finished second at the 2011 Northeast Amateur and tied for fifth at the Players Amateur. He is ranked No. 28 in the world and No. 11 in the U.S. among amateur players
White is listed fourth among Golfweek magazine’s pre-season top 10 collegiate players for 2011-12 after finishing this spring ranked 14th in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, 11th in the Golfstat Cup rankings. He tied for 8th at the NCAA Championship, tied for 2nd at the NCAA East Regional.
Tech graduates John-Tyler Griffin (2nd) and Paul Haley (23rd) both played in the tournament last year as seniors, and the Yellow Jackets have had a player in the field virtually every year. Three Tech golfers have captured the title in the history of the event – David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999) and Nicholas Thompson (2004).
Throughout the years, many Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic competitors have gone on to pursue successful careers in the Professional Golfers’ Association of America and on the PGA Tour. Other past champions include Webb Simpson (2007), Ricky Barnes (2000), Notah Begay (1994), Davis Love III (1984), Chris Nallen (2003), Jerry Pate (1974) and Tiger Woods (1995).
Alumni of the Golf Classic have gone on to earn more than $1.4 billion and win 561 events on the PGA Tour. In all, 144 colleges and universities have participated in the tournament, raising almost $700,000 in scholarship money for the participating institutions.
Each university represented by the Western Refining College All-Americans will receive a $1,000 scholarship.
