Three ASU men's golfers to play in 2008 World Amateur Team Championship
Three members of the Arizona State University men's golf team will be competing this week at the 2008 World Amateur Team Championship from Oct. 16-19. Junior Knut Borsheim and sophomores Stephan Gross and Jesper Kennegard will represent their native countries in the event, to be played at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club and the Grange Golf Club in Australia.
Kennegard, who will play for Sweden in the tournament, is coming off one of the best freshman seasons in ASU history in 2007-08. He finished with a 72.16 stroke average, fourth-best by a freshman in program history, and he was the first Sun Devil since Paul Casey 10 years earlier to be named first-team All-Pac-10 as a freshman. Kennegard had five top-10 finishes, including a win at the 2008 Hawai'i-Hilo Intercollegiate, last season, and he tied for fifth at this year's PING/Golfweek Preview.
Gross will be a part of Germany's team this week, and he comes into event with momentum after having an outstanding summer on the links. He won the European Amateur Championship and the German International Amateur, and he finished second in the Vodafone Challenge, a European Challenge Tour professional event. Gross had three top-10 finishes in just seven appearances as a freshman in 2007-08, and he was named honorable mention All-Pac-10.
Borsheim will compete for his native Norway at the World Amateur. He earned second-team All-Pac-10 honors in 2007-08, as he was one of just two Sun Devils to compete in all 12 events last season. He finished second at the 2008 ASU Thunderbird Invitational, and he shot a 65, his collegiate-low round, in the second round of the Alister MacKenzie Invitational in October 2007. Borsheim also received first-team Pac-10 All-Academic honors in 2007-08.
The World Amateur Team Championship, conducted by the International Golf Federation, has been held once every two years since 1958, with the teams competing for the Eisenhower Trophy. Past participants in the event include Jack Nicklaus, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Nick Price, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Michael Campbell, Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Trevor Immelman, Ben Curtis, Paul Casey and Luke Donald.