Rice Trio Set for U.S. Amateur
8/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
By: Tim Andrzejewski (tim.andrzejewski@rice.edu)
HOUSTON, Texas —A trio of Rice golfers will begin play at the prestigious U.S. Amateur on Monday when Mario Carmona, Mitchell Meissner and Kevin Reilly tee off at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Meissner, a junior, will tee off at 7 a.m. CT from Hole 1 on the South Course at Oakland Hills. Carmona, a junior, will tee off at 7:15 a.m. CT from Hole 10 on the North Course, Reilly, a senior who will be making his second appearance at the U.S. Amateur, will tee off at 8:35 from Hole 10 on the South Course.
For Tuesday's second round, Meissner will tee off at 12:25 p.m. CT from Hole 10 on the North Course. Carmona will tee off at 12:30 CT from Hole 1 on the South Course and Reilly will tee off at 1:50 from Hole 1 on the North Course.
All 312 golfers in the field will play two rounds of stroke play on Monday and Tuesday. The top 64 after those two rounds will then advance to match play, which begins on Wednesday. Match play will continue until next Sunday when a champion will be crowned.
That champion will be exempt to play in all majors next season except the PGA Championship, while the runner-up will be exempt to play in the U.S. Open and the Masters.
Meissner will be paired with Trevor Sluman, a former player at Louisville and Andrew Allenspach, a former player at Indiana. Carmona will be paired with Blake Barens, a senior at Notre Dame and Ryan Dornes, a sophomore at Penn State. Reilly will be paired with Geoff Vartelas, who just graduated from Penn State and Colin Prater, a junior at Colorado-Colorado Springs.
FS1 and Fox will have coverage of the event, starting on Wednesday, August 17, when match play begins and running through Sunday, August 21, when a champion is crowned.
Oakland Hills is one of eight courses that have hosted the U.S. Open (1924, 1937, 1951, 1961, 1985, 1996) the U.S. Senior Open (1981, 1991), the PGA Championship (1972, 1979, 2008) and the U.S. Amateur (2002, 2016). The course also hosted the 2004 Ryder Cup.
