GCAA Preseason Division II Poll

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The University of South Carolina Aiken is ranked 10^th in the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) NCAA Division II preseason top 25 poll released recently.

The Pacers are one five Peach Belt Conference teams ranked in the preseason poll with Georgia College & State earning the top spot in the poll. Columbus State is ranked third, while Clayton State enters the year ranked 16^th. Lander is tied for 17^th in the first poll of the year.

USC Aiken, which was ranked first for much of the 2008-09 golf season, claimed four regular season tournaments in the 2008-09 season.

The Pacers won two tournaments each during the fall and spring.

USC Aiken opened the 2008-09 year by taking team honors at the Kiawah Island Invitational in Kiawah Island, S.C. The Pacers also won the highly competitive NCAA Division II Aflac/Cougar Invitational hosted by Columbus State in Oct. of 2008.

USC Aiken acquired two NCAA Division I tournament wins in the spring of 2009. The Pacers opened their spring campaign by taking top honors as a team at both the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate hosted by Francis Marion and the 12th Annual Cleveland Golf Palmetto Intercollegiate at the Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, S.C.

The historically rich program that has three national championships under its belt (2004, 2005 and 2006) opens it 2009-10 campaign this week by hosting the Sixth Annual Kiawah Island Invitational.

The two-day Kiawah Island Invitational will be contested at the 6,875 yard, par 72 Cougar Point Golf Course. Designed by Gary Player, the course was rated at "4.5 stars" by Golf Digest. 

The tournament will be a two-round, 36-hole event (18 each day). Action is slated to get underway at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 7. The first Pacer is scheduled to tee off at 9 a.m. on Monday.

USC Aiken has won the event three times before, having won the first two editions of the event (2004 and 2005) and last year's team crown (2008). Oklahoma Christian won the event in 2007, while Armstrong Atlantic took home the team championship in 2006.

A week after opening with the 2009 Kiawah Island Invitational, USC Aiken will take part in the Raines Development Group Intercollegiate at the par 72 Country Club of South Carolina in Florence, S.C.

The 54-hole, two-day event is hosted by Francis Marion. USC Aiken finished seventh at last year's Raines Development Group Intercollegiate, which was formerly known as the Francis Marion Invitational. The Pacers are six-time champions in the event, having last won it in 2006. USC Aiken claimed the crown in the tournament five-straight times from 1992-96.