Jordan Utley Named Atlantic 10 Men's Golf Player Of Week
04/24/2006 | Men's Golf
April 24, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Richmond sophomore Jordan Utley was named the Atlantic 10 Men's Golf Player of the Week for the second time this spring after tying for fourth at Penn State's Rutherford Intercollegiate.
The Richmond, Va. native posted his fifth top-five finish of the 2005-06 season and his third straight, scoring a 5-over-par 221 on Penn State's par-72, 6,859-yard Blue Course. Utley carded a 5-over-par 77 during a driving rain in Saturday's first round. He then finished the final two rounds at even-par with a 73 in the second round and a 1-under 71 in the third round.
Utley has now played five of his last eight rounds at even-par or below. He leads the Spiders with a 73.5 stroke average. Utley also received A-10 Player of the Week honors on April 3rd after a third-place finish at Towson's Drew Upton Memorial. This is the third Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honor for a Spider in the 2005-06 season. Freshman Tim Courtney also received the award once.
Richmond finished eighth out of 15 teams at the Rutherford Intercollegiate, their last tune-up before the 2006 Atlantic 10 Championship which will be held May 5-7 at Orange County National in Orlando, Fla.
The 2006 Atlantic 10 Championship looks to be the most competitive in league history as five of the 13 teams in the conference have chances at NCAA Regional at-large bids.
Richmond is one of those five teams with a chance at its first NCAA Regional appearance since 2001. The Spiders need to finish in the top-four in the Mid-Atlantic Region and were ranked second by Golfweek's rankings entering the Rutherford Intercollegiate.
Conference rival George Washington was ranked fourth in Golfweek's latest Mid-Atlantic ranking and could be battling Richmond for a NCAA Regional at-large bid at the A-10 Championship. Charlotte, Xavier and Rhode Island also will be playing for NCAA Regional appearances. The winner of the A-10 Championship earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.