GREENSBORO, Ga. (March 9, 2023) – The 18th annual Linger Longer Invitational (LLI), which annually boasts one of the country’s strongest collegiate golf tournament fields, tees off next week featuring Vanderbilt University, the nation’s No. 1-ranked team as well as seven other schools in the Top 50.
Played on Reynolds Lake Oconee’s Great Waters course, the 2023 LLI is scheduled for Saturday, March 18 through Tuesday, March 21, and will again be co-hosted by participating schools, Mercer University and Kennesaw State University.
Vanderbilt, No. 1 in the latest Golfweek rankings (March 6), is led by sophomore Gordon Sargent, who earlier this year accepted a special invitation to compete in next month’s Masters Tournament. Sargent, the country’s top-ranked player (Golfweek), will be joined at the ’23 LLI by University of Arkansas senior Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira from Argentina, who also has been invited to participate in this year’s Masters.
In addition to Vanderbilt and Arkansas (No. 45), other ranked teams appearing at this year’s LLI are Georgia Tech (6), Virginia (16), Alabama (17) Georgia (25), UNC-Greensboro (47), and Clemson (48). Georgia will look to defend its title, having held off Vanderbilt by just four strokes a year ago.
In all, 16 teams will compete for the 2023 title in a 54-hole stroke-play tournament on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Great Waters layout, which features no fewer than 10 holes on Lake Oconee and is ranked by Golf Digest as one of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses. The individual competition will be headlined by Sargent, who finished fourth here last year, his teammate Cole Sherwood, as well as Ben James (Virginia), Ross Steelman and Christo Lamprecht (both Georgia Tech). All five players are ranked in the top 10 of Golfweek’s latest individual rankings.
Linger Longer Invitational alumni include PGA Tour players with combined earnings of over $300 million and more than 60 Tour victories. Former LLI participants include Justin Thomas (Alabama); Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler (both Texas); Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State); and Russell Henley, Harris English, Brian Harman, Keith Mitchell, and Chris Kirk (all Georgia). Scheffler and Kirk already have captured PGA Tour events in 2023.
For additional information on the Linger Longer Invitational or to check scores during the event, visit www.reynoldslakeoconee.com/the-linger-longer-invitational.
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About Reynolds Lake Oconee
Surrounded by more than 350 miles of majestic shoreline on Georgia’s historic Lake Oconee, the golf destination resort community of Reynolds Lake Oconee features six championship golf courses and is home to The Kingdom at Reynolds Lake Oconee, a world-class instructional and TaylorMade club fitting facility. Located between Atlanta and golf’s legendary grounds in Augusta, Reynolds Lake Oconee is an outdoor-recreation paradise that includes the Sandy Creek Sporting Grounds, award-winning tennis center, swimming pools, pedestrian trails, wellness campus, and full-service marinas to facilitate watersports. Guests can choose private accommodations that include luxury resort condominiums and cottages, or The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee, a 257-room lakefront resort and spa. Dining is available at ten distinctive culinary venues. Reynolds Lake Oconee, originally established in 1988, is located roughly 90 miles from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. For more information, visit www.reynoldslakeoconee.com.
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