Golf Channel announced today eight of the top NCAA Division I collegiate golf programs have committed to compete in the annual East Lake Cup presented by Hewlett Packard Enterprise match play championship, featuring an expanded tournament format and airing live on the network Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 31-Nov. 2 at historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga.
MEN’S DIVISION: The men’s division of the East Lake Cup will include the 2016 reigning NCAA National Champions University of Oregon; runner-up University of Texas, who lost to Oregon in the championship match; the 2015 East Lake Cup champion University of Illinois, coming off a school-record nine-tournament-win season, including the Big Ten Championship and its fourth consecutive NCAA Regional title; and Vanderbilt University, quarterfinalists in the 2016 NCAA National Championships.
“We are thrilled to be competing in the East Lake Cup,” said Casey Martin, Oregon men’s head golf coach. “To be associated with this event and the schools participating means the world to us at Oregon.”
WOMEN’S DIVISION: The women’s division will feature all four teams from the 2016 National Championship semifinals, headlined by reigning national champions University of Washington, 2016 runner-up and 2015 national champions Stanford University, six-time national champions Duke University and three-time national champions University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA).
“We are very excited to be part of the 2016 East Lake Cup,” said Washington’s women’s head golf coach Mary Lou Mulflur. “The commitment from the East Lake Foundation and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to showcase the best teams from both sides of collegiate golf is going to create a thrilling three days for everyone involved. We can’t wait to get to Atlanta!”
The East Lake Cup will expand to three days of live tournament action, following a format from the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Golf National Championships. On Monday, Oct. 31, the eight teams will compete in individual stroke play competition to determine the individual national champion and to seed for two days of match-play competition. Tuesday-Wednesday, Nov. 1-2, two match-play tournaments will be hosted simultaneously for the men’s and women’s divisions, with the semifinals taking place on Tuesday and the finals and consolation matches on Wednesday.
Teams for the East Lake Cup will compete on the championship golf course at East Lake Golf Club, home of the TOUR Championship, the season-ending event of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs. The East Lake Cup, benefits the East Lake Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to helping families build better lives and children reach their highest potential through its holistic approach to community revitalization incorporating mixed-income housing, cradle-to-college education and community wellness. The inaugural East Lake Cup, in association with presenting sponsor Hewlett Packard Enterprise and associate sponsors BMW, CSX and Rolex, raised $475,000 for the East Lake Foundation.
“We are thrilled to celebrate the 2nd Annual East Lake Cup at historic East Lake Golf Club,” said Daniel Shoy, Jr., President of the East Lake Foundation. “This year, Charles R. Drew Charter School welcomed its first senior class, completing the cradle-to-college pipeline, an integral part of the holistic revitalization in the East Lake community. The East Lake Cup provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase the importance of post-secondary education and the best in college golf to our Drew students and participants in The First Tee® of East Lake program.”
The East Lake Cup also features the Tom Cousins Award, an annual recognition presented to an outstanding male and female golfer who exemplify the values of the East Lake Foundation: excels in academics, engaged in his or her community and has overcome adversity. This award is named for Tom Cousins, founder of the East Lake Foundation, which transformed a community in despair into a thriving neighborhood, now a national model for community redevelopment through Purpose Built Communities. Baylor’s Laura Lonardi and Illinois’ Alex Burge were the first recipients of the Tom Cousins Award.
For more information about the East Lake Cup please visit the tournament website here. Stay connected with the championship on Twitter via @GolfChannel using hashtag #EastLakeCup.
About the East Lake Foundation
Founded in 1995 on the belief that everyone deserves a chance to succeed, the East Lake Foundation collaborates with public and private organizations to provide tools that enable Atlanta’s East Lake residents to build a better future through its model for community revitalization.
The East Lake model includes cradle-to-college education at Charles R. Drew Charter School and its early learning partners, mixed-income housing at The Villages of East Lake and community wellness through programs including The First Tee® of East Lake, the Resident and Community Support Program, the East Lake Community Learning Garden, Start ME: East Lake micro-entrepreneur program and East Lake Healthy Connections. This approach to building a strong community not only helps break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, but creates a place where people of all ages and incomes choose to live. East Lake has become a national model for holistic community revitalization programs through its sister organization, Purpose Built Communities. Additional information is available at www.eastlakefoundation.org.
About East Lake Golf Club
Located in Atlanta, East Lake Golf Club is the home course of legendary golfer Bobby Jones and is the oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta. The Club is not only historic, but philanthropic as well. Proceeds from operations support the East Lake Foundation, now serving as a national model for holistic community redevelopment across the country through Purpose Built Communities.
Over the years, the golf course has hosted many national and regional championships, including the 1950 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 1963 Ryder Cup, and 2001 U.S. Men’s Amateur. It is now the permanent home of the TOUR Championship, the culminating event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup. Additional information may be found at www.eastlakegolfclub.com
About Golf Channel
Golf Channel is a multimedia, golf entertainment and services company based in Orlando, Fla. Serving the most-affluent audience in all of television, Golf Channel – co-founded by Arnold Palmer in 1995 and now part of NBC Sports Group – is available in more than 200 million homes in 84 countries and 11 languages around the world. Golf Channel features more live golf coverage than all other networks combined, including tournament action from the PGA TOUR, LPGA Tour, The Open, Olympics, and Ryder Cup, as well as high-quality news, instruction and original programming. Golf Channel’s digital platforms, headed by GolfChannel.com, deliver unmatched coverage of the world of golf. Fans are able to enjoy 24/7 live streaming of Golf Channel content through Golf Live Extra and NBC Sports Live Extra, both powered by Playmaker Media, and select programming is simulcast via SiriusXM’s PGA TOUR Radio. In addition, Golf Channel connects the world to golf through a wide array of digital and lifestyle services including Golf Channel Mobile, a comprehensive app covering golf’s latest headlines, scores and analysis; GolfNow, the world’s largest online tee time booking platform and golf course technology partner, which includes the GolfNow Mobile App, featuring on-course GPS tracking, in-round scoring and game tracking; GolfAdvisor.com, the world’s largest golf course ratings and review resource for golfers, by golfers; a North American network of Golf Channel Academy instructional facilities; and Golf Channel Am Tour, the world’s largest amateur golf tour.
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Media Contacts:
Jeremy Friedman
Golf Channel Communications
407-355-4058
Jeremy.Friedman@golfchannel.com
Tom Sprouse
East Lake Cup Media Director
614-889-6791
Catherine Woodling
East Lake Foundation/East Lake Golf Club
404-974-4506
cwoodling@eastlakefoundation.org
