NBC, Golf hannel to broadcast competition
BIRMINGHAM – The theme for a couple of teams and a couple of players at this year’s PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship is simple: Do it again.
That’s because both defending Division I team champions and the medalists in the division return to defend their crowns at the 2023 PWCC, a 54-hole stroke-play event in its 36th year. It will be hosted at Shoal Creek Club and Bent Brook Golf Course in Birmingham May 8-10.
A strong field of 29 teams entered in PGA WORKS
The PWCC is the most culturally significant championship in collegiate golf organizers claim. This year’s edition features a competitive lineup of 29 teams representing Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and other minority-serving institutions from across the country.
NBC Sports will provide live broadcast coverage for the first time in the Championship’s history on GOLF Channel and Peacock. GOLF Channel and Peacock will present all three championship rounds at Shoal Creek Club Monday through Wednesday from 3:30-6:30 p.m. CDT. PGA.com will also stream the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship live during the three tournament days.
The 197-player field will be divided into five divisions – Division I Men, Division II Men, Women’s Team, Individual Men and Individual Women. The individual divisions will feature 52 competitors representing 44 programs.
Howard University is the defending Division I men’s champion, and it is coming off a second-place finish in the Northeast Conference championship. Its top performer, Greg Odom Jr., finished tied for second in the NEC championship and returns to the PWCC as the two-time defending medalist. Teammate Everett Whiten Jr., who finished a spot behind Odom for medalist at last year’s championship, finished tied for fourth at the conference championship last week.
If these two can continue their recent run, they will have their say for medalist again, and Howard will sit in a prime position to win its second consecutive PWCC title in the program’s third year.
Texas A&M Corpus Christi seeks to defend title
On the women’s Division I side, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi looks to defend its back-to-back PWCC championships after a third consecutive fourth-place finish in the Southland Conference Championship two weeks ago. Corpus Christi returns with last year’smed alist, junior Lucie Charbonnier, who became a three-time all-conference selection last week – her first selection to the first team.
Delaware State and Howard’s women’s team will look to make some noise after finishing second and third, respectively, in the Northeast Conference championship last month. Delaware State finished second to Corpus Christi at last year’s PWCC, and Howard finished fifth.
In Division II, the Miles College men, who won the Championship’s division in 2021, are coming off an impressive season in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Coach Leonard Smoot was named coach of the year, junior Phillip Darst was named SIAC player of the year and Jerris Baker was named freshman of the year.
The individual competition is open to all minority women and men student-athletes playing collegiate golf at the Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA and NJCAA level, or minority women and men enrolled in one of the PGA of America’s PGA Golf Management University Programs
For the third year, the Korn Ferry Tour will extend sponsor exemption applications to the top three finishers in the Men’s Division I, Men’s Division II and Men’s Individual Divisions. Those individuals can apply for exemption into the 2023 Price Cutter Charity Championship, July 20-23, at Highland Springs Country Club in Springfield, Missouri.
On the women’s side, Epson Tour exemptions will be available to the top three finishers and ties in the women’s team or individual divisions for the Guardian Championship, Sept. 15-17, at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s Capitol Hill – Senator Course in Prattville, Alabama.
Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email bamagolfnews@gmail.com
Featured image courtesy of PGA wORKS
