FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 2nd, 2015

PLAY SUSPENDED ON DAY 1 OF EAST LAKE CUP WITH 17 OF 20 MATCHES TO RESUME AT 7:30 AM ET TUESDAY

ATLANTA, Ga., Nov. 2, 2015 – Play was suspended due to darkness at 5:30 p.m. ET Monday after a 4-hour morning delay due to inclement weather conditions during Day 1 of the inaugural East Lake Cup presented by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Atlanta, Ga. Seventeen of the 20 matches are still to be completed.  The semifinal matches will resume at 7:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, airing live on Golf Channel.

Golf Channel Tuesday East Lake Cup Programming Schedule (all times ET)
7-7:30 a.m.                  Morning Drive
7:30-10 a.m.                East Lake Cup Day 1 Matches (Conclusion)
10-11 a.m.                   Morning Drive
2-5 p.m.                       East Lake Cup Day 2 Matches
5-6 p.m.                       Golf Central

In the women’s division, Duke University (No. 4 seed) holds a commanding lead in three of its four matches still to be completed over No. 1 seed and 2015 National Champions Stanford University, with a point already on the board courtesy of Gurbani Singh’s 3&2 win over Stanford’s Shannon Aubert. No. 3 seed University of Southern California (USC) leads Baylor University (No. 2 seed) in two of the five matches, while two matches are All Square and Baylor leads in one match. On the men’s side, the University of Georgia (No. 4 seed) leads in two of its four matches still to be completed over No. 1 seed and 2015 National Champions Louisiana State University (LSU), and has one point already on the board thanks to Jaime Lopez Rivarola’s 7&5 win over LSU’s Brandon Pierce. Two of the matches are All Square. The University of Illinois (No. 3 seed) leads four of five matches against USC (No. 2 seed), with 1up leads in each of those four matches, while the fifth match is currently All Square.

The rain-soaked East Last Golf Club – home to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola on the PGA TOUR – received more than three inches of rain in the 36 hours prior to Day 1 matches on Monday, providing competitors with difficult scoring conditions throughout the day.

With 17 semifinals matches still to be completed, competition is scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, with Golf Channel airing live coverage until all matches have concluded. At that time, the championship and consolation matches for both the men’s and women’s divisions will be paired, tentatively scheduled to get underway at 11:30 a.m. ET Tuesday. Golf Channel’s live coverage of the championship and consolation matches is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET with Golf Central Pre Game and live tournament coverage at 2 p.m. ET.

Semifinals Standings:

Women’s Division
Duke Leading Stanford 4-1
USC Leading Baylor 2-1-2

Stanford (No. 1)                                vs.                                Duke (No. 4)
Shannon Aubert                                                                      Gurbani Singh (3&2)
Lauren Kim                                                                             Leona Maguire (2up, 14)
Mariah Stackhouse (2up, 12)                                                  Virginia Carta
Casey Danielson                                                                     Celiene Boutier (2up, 11)
Quirine Eijkenboom                                                                Sandy Choi (2up, 10)

Baylor (No. 2)                                    vs.                                USC (No.3)
Lauren Whyte (All Square)                                                    Karen Chung
Giovana Maymom                                                                   Kyung Kim (6&4)
Maggie Beth Byers                                                                  Robynn Ree (3up, 13)
Gateau-Chovelon (1up, 11)                                                    Gabriella Then
Laura Lonardi (All Square)                                                    Tiffany Chan

Men’s Division
UGA Leading LSU 3-1-1
Illinois Leading USC 4-0-1

LSU (No. 1)                                        vs.                                Georgia (No. 4)
Brandon Pierce                                                                       Jaime Rivarola (7&5)
Sam Burns (5up, 13)                                                               Sepp Straka
Zach Wright (All Square, 12)                                                 Zach Healy
Nathan Jeansonne                                                                   Greyson Sigg (2up, 10)
Eric Ricard                                                                              Lee McCoy (5up, 9)

USC (No. 2)                                       vs.                                Illinois (No. 3)
Jonah Texeira (All Square, 16)                                                Dylan Meyer
Justin Suh                                                                                Thomas Detry (1up, 13)
Rico Hoey                                                                               Charlie Danielson (1up, 13)
Andrew Levitt                                                                                    Alex Burge (1up, 10)
Sean Crocker                                                                           Nick Hardy (1up, 9)

QUOTES

University of Georgia

Lee McCoy 

On his rib injury
“I was really fortunate that my rib, that area, kind of loosened up after the first three holes. First tee shot was really bad. I made the mistake of going inside and resting it for about 20 minutes before I teed off. I don’t know why I did that, because I spent about an hour and a half on the range hitting wedges, just trying to get it loose. But I’m not going to make that mistake again.”

“I’m usually a 30-maybe 40 ball kind of guy. I’m going to hit probably 100 couple balls, hit some wedges, take it slow, and not take a break before I tee off tomorrow. I’m going to go home and see how it feels in the morning.”

On the weather conditions
“In college golf, we usually play a lot in some increment weather. I was really impressed with how good the fairways looked with the amount of rain we got. I only took a casual once, which I was very surprised. I didn’t even think after the amount of rain we got we’d even play today. Because the Golf Channel tweeted a picture at 8 a.m. in the morning and there were four creeks in the middle of the nine.”

“This is about as easy as you’re going to see today. No wind, ball in hand, soft greens, college tournament.”

On playing on the same course as TOUR Championship
“Phenomenal. This front nine is one of my favorite greens I’ve ever played on. We don’t get opportunities like this very often in college.”

 On playing in front of cameras
“Luckily I got enough of it this summer where it’s kind of used to it a little. It still changes the atmosphere. If you were going to put most of the guys on the tour out on Augusta with no cameras, they would shoot well. It’s definitely something I need to get used to if I’m going to be successful in this game.”

Coach Chris Haack
“We played pretty solid. Guys got off to pretty good starts. Couple of them got off to pretty big starts and overall they did pretty good.”

On Jaime Rivarola’s 7&5 win
“Good to see. This is his first year of actually playing with us as a Junior and playing a lot. So this will help build his confidence a little more and this is good for him going forward in the year. If we ever make it to match play at the NCAA’s he has got that experience and he’s good at it. It’s good to see”

Jaime Lopez Rivarola

On his 7&5 win

I knew conditions were going to be tough with all the rain we had last night and earlier this morning. I just stuck to it regardless of whatever lies I was getting out there and it worked.”

“I wanted to stay calm and do what I planned out for the week when I played practice rounds this weekend. I knew the conditions were not going to be the best after all of the rain we got last night and this morning. I just tried to stay patient and it paid off. I made some really good putts and I was putting it really well on the green. That was key on the match. I just tried to step on the gas as much as I could and tried to finish early.”

Baylor University

Giovana Maymon

On the Weather

“We’ve been playing in this all week, and we have it back home as well, so we got used to the rain and have our umbrellas. I don’t think it was a distraction at all. I think my routine has gotten slower with the rain because I have to think about things more. How wet it is, the rain, how it’s going to affect.”

On playing on the same course as TOUR Championship

“It’s the best thing. I’m so glad I’m here, I couldn’t be happier, it’s just about enjoying the experience and trying to enjoy the game as much as possible.”

University of Illinois

Coach Mike Small

“We’re only 1-up in the matches so it’s really… we’re 1-up in three matches so it’s a lot of golf left. We’re only 1-up, so 1-up in my book is almost tied. You’re one away from being tied so I think it’s a very tight match. I think we have to keep our momentum going tonight and come back tomorrow with the same purpose, this is so close from over it’s ridiculous.”

“Greens are unbelievable, that sub-air system is phenomenal. It wasn’t as wet as I thought I’d be… it drains very well.”

“We want them to get used to it (playing on camera) and stay focused on what they’re doing. So we’re excited about that. (Does it seem to be a distraction at this point?) I hope not. We’ve played that last couple national finals so it’s been there so hopefully they’re getting used to it.”

“I think they enjoy that (playing the same golf course as the TOUR Championship) and like seeing that and feeling like they’re a part of something related to something like that but I think that when they’re out there competing they’re not thinking much about that they’re trying to win they’re match.”

Stanford University

Mariah Stackhouse

“Whenever I get to come back and play in Georgia it’s special. But, being in Atlanta and so close to the city, like being from Riverdale, I tell everyone I’m from Atlanta because if you’re from the metro area, you’re from Atlanta. So it’s just really nice to be back on home turf. Both of my parents were able to come out, which is awesome. A lot of people that I’ve grown up, knowing just playing through GSGA and Atlanta Junior, are here and I saw a lot of little girls out today to come and watch me play. When I’m back at school I get messages from people through social media or through my parents and they are always telling me that they’re keeping me in their thoughts, so it’s nice to be back and play at home and have those same people that are always keeping up with me out at Stanford out to see me play today.”

“I think the course is playing fantastic considering the amount of rain we’ve had in the last two days. I’m very impressed at how they were able to drain it out. Those greens are still rolling very quickly. On a couple of my chip shots I’m still getting a lot of release and that’s pretty incredible considering the downpour that we saw earlier this morning and last night. As far as how I’m feeling, I’m feeling really good. The last six or seven holes or so I don’t think I’ve hit an iron outside of 15 feet from the hole, so I’ve been a good run on the last couple and I’m hitting my driver pretty solidly. I’m really taking advantage of being able to lift, clean and place it through the course… so that comes in handy in that rough. If you get in that rough out here you’re pretty much panelizing yourself. I feel like I’m playing pretty good. Just excited to be putting in a good run right now.”

“I always joke with the team and say I love it (playing in front of the cameras). It’s an opportunity to hit a good shot and to be seen so that’s kind of the way I look at it. I joke about it just to make sure that takes the pressure off. If people are watching golf they know golf is hard and if any pressure comes it comes from – oh I want to play good – but I mean it’s golf so it’s a hard game. It’s not like you’re going to do something crazy and people are going to say, ‘oh my gosh.’ But I really enjoy it and I think that for college golf to be given this kind of spotlight is huge. With nationals the last couple of years, I think that’s the first time college golf has been on TV, so now on top of nationals to have this event I think is going to be really great to grow the game and the interest of kids too. You know if you can watch a college sport on television it makes you want to play it growing up, so I think it will be huge, events like this getting young kids interested in the game so I’m really excited Golf Channel has taken it upon themselves to put on an event like this.”

On playing the same course as the TOUR Championship

“They’ve been showing a couple of the reruns from Jordan (Speith) every now and then so we’ve talked about it, just like his clutchness and coming through. Another thing we talked about was watching those guys play out here, you can really saw how challenging the course was. So I think it was definitely nice to be able to see them compete and then just to know that you’re watching guys like Jordan and know that if you bring in high quality golf and you’re prepared, it doesn’t matter how hard the course is. You can give it a good go. So I think that helped us to get in the mindset of ‘work hard, play hard’ and then you can have a good time.”

Online Media Center
Press releases, tee times, interview transcripts, logos and images from the East Lake Cup are available during the East Lake Cup at the East Lake Cup Online Media Center – available on NBC Sports Group Press Box, NBC Sports’ official press site.

East Lake Cup Press Contacts:
Jeremy Friedman, Golf Channel Communications, 407-721-9752 c Jeremy.Friedman@golfchannel.com
Tom Sprouse, East Lake Cup Media Director: 614-519-1873 c, tsprouse@hnssports.com
Jeff Szklinski, Golf Channel Communications: 814-880-6933 c, Jeff.Szklinski@golfchannel.com

-NBC Sports Group-