SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg University men's golf team will host the Wittenberg Invitational on Sept. 18 and 19 at two courses in Springfield. The teams will tee it up Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Windy Knoll Golf Course and Sunday at noon at Reid Park North Golf Course.

The Tigers are welcoming in plenty of stiff competition for the Wittenberg Invitational as nine other schools are scheduled to participate. Central State University, Thomas More College, Wilmington College, Baldwin-Wallace College, Capital University, John Carroll University, Hanover College, Ohio Northern University and two teams from the College of Wooster are in the field.

The Tigers are coming off an impressive 2003-04 season in which, as a team, they placed ahead of nearly 75 percent of the schools they faced in tournament competition. Led by senior Andy Bonar, a three-year All-North Coast Athletic Conference honoree, the Tigers are a relatively young team with great potential. A year after finishing fifth in the challenging NCAC, from which four of the 23 teams in the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament hailed, the Tigers hope for a breakthrough this year. In the season's first tournament, Wittenberg finished seventh out of 15 teams at the Ohio Valley College Invitational, which featured a field comprised almost exclusively of NAIA and NCAA Division II scholarship programs.

Windy Knoll, formerly a world-renowned horse farm, is a links-style course that opened in 2002. The par-71, 18-hole course plays 6,800 yards from the professional tees. It is co-owned by Dan d'Arrigo, Wittenberg Class of 1978.

Reid Park North is a municipal golf course operated by the City of Springfield's National Trail Parks and Recreation Department. The par-72, 18-hole course plays 6,838 yards from the professional tees.

044-04