Red Wolves Intercollegiate Golf Tournament Begins

Courtesy Arkansas State University Athletics Department

JONESBORO, Ark. (3/31/13) — Wixson Huffstetler and Loel Garner claimed the fifth annual Wayne Wolfe Collegiate-Amateur title at RidgePointe Country Club on Sunday, one day before the start of the 17th Annual Red Wolves Intercollegiate hosted by the Arkansas State men’s golf team. 

Local amateurs from the tournament’s major sponsors were paired with different student-athletes from the competing teams for a single round during the collegiate-amateur dedicated to the late Wayne Wolfe, who was the long-time senior vice president of marketing and business development at Liberty Bank of Arkansas and a key figure in the founding of the Red Wolves Intercollegiate. 

The collegiate-amateur’s top finishers were recognized and received awards at a tournament banquet honoring Wolfe. The team of Huffstetler and Garner shot a 58 to win the title.

Sponsors of this year’s Red Wolves Intercollegiate include Suddenlink, the Red Wolves Foundation, Alexander Machine Shop, Atlas Asphalt, All-Clean, Cache River Valley Seed, Bubba Barnett, Delta Dental, Farm Bureau Insurance, Armor Seed, Goad and Company, Hendrix Family Dentistry, Liberty Bank, Merrill Lynch, the Loiacano Family, Jonesboro Roofing, Regions Bank, Southern Home Healthcare, Vance Construction, Holden/Pallett and Integrity Bank.

“There is a reason why we have so many teams, and it’s because everybody wants to be in this tournament,” said ASU head coach Steve Johnson. “That is a direct result of the commitment by our sponsors, the tournament committee and the community that puts so much effort into this event. The city of Jonesboro really does a fantastic job welcoming all these teams to our community and RidgePointe always does a tremendous job preparing the golf course.”

The two-day tournament will begin Monday at 8:30 a.m. with a shotgun start for the first round. The second round will immediately follow the first on Monday, and the third and final round will begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Nineteen schools from 10 different states are competing in this year’s tournament, including Arkansas State, UALR, Austin Peay, Belmont, Eastern Illinois, ULM, Meridian Community College, Missouri State, Nebraska, New Orleans, Nicholls State, Northern Iowa, Oral Roberts, Samford, Southern Illinois, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, UT Martin, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

ASU will be looking to win its first Red Wolves Intercollegiate since the spring of 2002. Leading the Red Wolves this season is junior Easton Key, who holds a 74.7 stroke average and took medalist honors Bill Ross Intercollegiate.

A-State will use two teams in the tournament this year. Playing for one ASU team will be Chance Holden, Seth Garner, Key, Wessel Zwiegers and Matt Howton, while Christian Helmbold, Sean Brock, Tommy Eagan, Eli Mattioli and Chris Bruchhausen will play for the other. Alex Hewitt will compete as an individual. 

Live scoring will be used for the tournament and can be viewed at GolfStat.com. Tournament results will also be posted on AStateRedWolves.com, the official Web site of ASU athletics.