UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's golf team returns to action this weekend and will play host to the 44th Rutherford Intercollegiate at Penn State's Blue Course. The 54-hole tournament plays at a par 71 with a 7,202-yard layout with two rounds on Saturday, April 17 and a final 18 holes on Sunday, April 18.
The 14-team field includes host Penn State, fellow Big Ten institutions Maryland and Rutgers, Bowling Green, Bucknell, Connecticut, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, George Mason, Georgetown, James Madison, Kent State, Loyola (Md.) and Seton Hall. George Mason is coached by Nittany Lion alumnus Greg Pieczynski '06.
Saturday's first round begins at 7:30 a.m. with the second round to follow. The final round Sunday begins at 8:00 a.m. Tee times for both days will be available on GoPSUsports.com and on GolfStat.com.
The 44th edition of the Rutherford Intercollegiate takes place two years after the Nittany Lions won their fifth-straight championship in 2019. The 2020 event was not held after spring events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four of the top finishers from the 2019 Rutherford Intercollegiate will be in the field for this weekend's competition. Nittany Lion graduate student Ryan Davis (Berkeley Heights, New Jersey) took third place with teammate Lou Olsakovsky (Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania), Loyola Maryland's Evan Brown and Rutgers' Christopher Gotterup finishing in a tie for fourth place.
Scores from Alec Bard (New Hartford, New York), Davis, Jimmy Meyers (Wexford, Pennsylvania), Olsakovsky and Patrick Sheehan (Doylestown, Pennsylvania) are eligible to count toward Penn State's team total. Nittany Lions James Allen (Scarsdale, New York), Lukas Clark (Holland, Pennsylvania), Ryan Lee (Norwood, New Jersey), James McHugh (Rye, New York) and Ben Smith (Blain, Pennsylvania) will participate as individuals.
The Rutherford Intercollegiate, established in 1975 as the Penn State Invitational, was named in honor of R.B. "Pop" Rutherford, Sr., known as the "father of Penn State golf." Rutherford, Sr., was the program's coach from the team's inception in 1922 until 1949. Penn State has won or shared the team championship 27 times with the individual championship won by a Nittany Lion 20 times.
Live stats for the Rutherford Intercollegiate will be available on GolfStat. A recap of the two rounds on Saturday and results will be available on GoPSUsports.com.
