Nov. 24, 2009

Tennessee's David Holmes rallied for an even-par 71 Tuesday and finished in a tie for sixth at the Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic in El Paso, Texas.

The senior from Knoxville finished at 7-under-par 206, four shots behind co-medalists Hunter Hamrick of Alabama and Morgan Hoffman of Oklahoma State (Hamrick won the event in a one-hole playoff). First-round leader Dustin Garza of Wichita State finished third at 203, followed by Georgia's Russell Henley (204) and Washington's Nick Taylor (205).

Scoring totals were considerably higher during Tuesday's final round than in Monday's 36-hole opening session at El Paso Country Club. Holmes was one of just nine golfers -- or 28 percent of the field -- to record an even par or better round Tuesday. During Monday's opening 36 holes, 41 rounds -- or 64 percent -- were par or better.

Holmes had the worst of it over his first nine holes. He birdied Nos. 3 and 6, but bogeys at the fifth and eighth holes along with a double bogey at the par-4 seventh pushed his outward score to 38. Holmes birdied the 11th before giving it right back at No. 12, but then rallied to play 2 under par over his final six holes. He birdied the 15th and closed the tournament with a nifty birdie on 18 to match his best finish of the fall.

Holmes also placed sixth at UT's opening event, the Carpet Capital Collegiate, back in September. But this week's scorecard was his best since shooting 8 under par to tie for second at the Northeast Amateur in June.

The Western Refining Golf Classic is an elite invitational event including 32 All-America golfers from a year ago representing 27 schools, making it the largest field in the tournament's history. Last season, it ranked as the No. 1 tournament in the country for the fifth consecutive season, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.

Throughout the years, many of the tournament's competitors have gone on to successful careers on the PGA Tour. Some of the past champions include Ricky Barnes (2000), Notah Begay (1994), David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999), Davis Love III (1984), Chris Nallen (2003), Jerry Pate (1974), Nicholas Thompson (2004) and Tiger Woods (1995).

Each university is awarded a $1,000 scholarship in the name of the golfer competing in the tournament.

Tennessee's next collegiate tournament is the Battle at the Beach, Feb. 14-16 in Newport Coast, Calif.

LEADERBOARD
t-1.	Hunter Hamrick, Alabama	66-67-69--202 (-11)
t-1.	Morgan Hoffman, Oklahoma State	65-68-69--202 (-11)
3.	Dustin Garza, Wichita State	64-67-72--203 (-10)
4.	Russell Henley, Georgia	68-66-70--204 (-9)
5.	Nick Taylor, Washington	69-65-71--205 (-8)
t-6.	David Holmes, TENNESSEE	68-67-71--206 (-7)
t-6.	Richard Lee, Washington	65-73-68--206 (-7)
8.	John Hahn, Kent State	67-72-68--207 (-6)
9.	Corey Nagy, Charlotte	64-72-72--208 (-5)
10.	Andrew Putnam, Pepperdine	67-71-71--209 (-4)
11.	Kevin Tway, Oklahoma State	67-70-73--210 (-3)
12.	Knut Borsheim, Arizona State	69-71-72--212 (-1)
t-13.	Lion Kim, Michigan	67-73-73--213 (E)
t-13.	David Lingmerth, Arkansas	67-70-76--213 (E)
t-15.	Harris English, Georgia	70-70-74--214 (+1)
t-15.	Bo Hoag, Ohio State	69-69-76--214 (+1)
t-17.	Mitchell Fedorka, La Verne	73-67-75--215 (+2)
t-17.	Tom Hoge, TCU	76-64-75--215 (+2)
t-17.	Scott Langley, Illinois	72-72-71--215 (+2)
t-20.	Kevin Foley, Penn State	70-71-75--216 (+3)
t-20.	Daniel Miernicki, Oregon	71-71-74--216 (+3)
22.	Eddie Olson, UNLV	70-72-75--217 (+4)
t-23.	George Bryan IV, South Carolina	71-74-73--218 (+5)
t-23.	Matt Hill, North Carolina State	72-72-74--218 (+5)
t-23.	Tarquin MacManus, Arizona	67-76-75--218 (+5)
t-23.	John Peterson, LSU	74-71-73--218 (+5)
27.	Scott Pinckney, Arizona State	75-70-74--219 (+6)
28.	Lance Lopez, Texas	71-77-72--220 (+7)
29.	Gregor Main, UCLA	70-74-78--222 (+9)
30.	Matthew Giles, Southern Calif.	72-73-78--223 (+10)
31.	Alexander Sitompul, Michigan	75-73-77--225 (+12)
32.	Alex Ching, San Diego	77-77-76--230 (+17)