Kent State University's three-time all-American golfer Ben Curtis
(Ostrander,
Ohio/Buckeye Valley) was selected to
the United States team for the World Amateur Team
Championships Aug. 31-Sept. 3 at the
Sporting Club in Berlin, Germany, the United States Golf
Association has announced.
Curtis, who is ranked first
in the latest Golfweek/Titleist Amateur Rankings, was selected along
with Georgia Institute of Technology
senior Bryce Molder and 48-year old North and South Amateur
champion David Eger. The fourth team
member will be announced after the U.S. Amateur.
Curtis has had an excellent
summer, capped off by a victory at the Players Amateur Aug.
10-13 in Bluffton, S.C. Curtis had
rounds of 68-66-69-68=271 to win by one stroke over Georgia Tech's
Matt Weibring. Curtis also advanced
to the finals of the Western Amateur, losing 2 and 1 to South
Africa's Michael Kirk. He also won
the Ohio Amateur by 17 strokes, finished second at the Monroe
Invitational and tied for fourth at
the Porter Cup.
Curtis completed his
eligibility at Kent State this past spring, but not after becoming one
of the
best golfers in a program rich in
tradition. He finished in the top five 22 times, was a four-time
all-Mid-American Conference
selection, earned MAC Player of the Year honors in 2000 and set a
school record for lowest-scoring
average (69.91).
Curtis will see a familiar
face in Germany, as Kent State senior-to-be Jon Mills (Brooklin,
Ontario/Centennial) will play for
the Canadian team.
"I'm personally happy for
both Ben and Jon," Kent State head coach Herb Page said. "They're
going to represent our golf team and
most importantly our university. It's a great reward because
they've worked hard and improved
drastically throughout their college careers and kept it up this
summer."
A biennial competition first
conducted in 1958, the World Amateur Team Championships is
being conducted for the 22nd time.
Contested over four rounds of stroke play, the championship brings
together international teams of
amateurs every two years to compete for the Eisenhower Trophy. The
Great Britian and Ireland team is
the defending champion, while the United States finished seventh in 1998.
The Kent State men's golf
team is coming off a ninth-place finish in the NCAA Championships,
a MAC championship and six
tournament titles during the 1999-2000 season. The Golden Flashes
open the 2000-01 season Sept. 18-19
at the Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational at The Inverness
Club in Toledo, Ohio.