LU Garners No. 2 Seed in Big South

Tobias Pettersson and the Liberty Flames own a No. 2 seed in the Big South Conference Championship. The event is a three-day/54 hole event teeing off on Monday at The Patriot Club in Ninety-Six, S.C.

The Liberty Flames have secured the No. 2 seed in the Big South Men's Golf Championship, which will be hosted by Coastal Carolina, at The Patriot Golf Club at Grand Harbor, in Ninety-Six, S.C. The Flames receive their No. 2 seed based on its current Golfweek national ranking of 116, second only to No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina (44) amongst the seven Big South men's golf programs.

The Patriot Golf Club, named in honor of the area's Revolutionary War heritage, earned the coveted title of "Best New Course of the Year" by South Carolina Magazine upon its completion in 2004. The championship course features a 7,079-yard, par-72 configuration and has hosted the Big South Golf Championship four of the past five seasons, as the course hosted the event in 2005, 2006 and 2008 prior to this year's tournament.

The three-day/54-hole event will commence with practice rounds on Sunday. Monday will feature a tee time format, starting at 8 a.m. Liberty will play with Coastal Carolina and No. 3 Radford, teeing off at 9:30 a.m., as threesomes will go in seven-minute increments.

Liberty is one of seven teams participating in the event. The remainder of the seeding goes as follows, No. 4 Winthrop, No. 5 Gardner-Webb, No. 6 Charleston Southern and No. 7 High Point. Presbyterian will also participate in the event, but will be ineligible for the conference crown due to its current transition to full Division I status. With seven teams entered and the addition of Presbyterian, a 40-man field is set to tee off.

The annual Big South Men's Golf Awards Banquet will be held Sunday evening following the practice round at The Patriot Golf Club. The 2009 annual award winners and half of the all-conference team will be announced at that time, while the remaining all-conference performers will be determined by their finish in the conference championship. The top five finishers in the event not already named on the all-conference team on Sunday will earn all-league honors.

Liberty freshman Robert Karlsson enters tournament play ranked as the No. 39 golfer in the country by Golfweek. In addition to Karlsson, Liberty's five-man crew will feature senior Jay Calvo (Baird, Texas), sophomore Preston Dembowiak (Summerfield, N.C.), freshman Tobias Pettersson (Kalmar, Sweden) and redshirt-junior Nathan Schenz-Davis (San Diego, Calif.).

Make sure to check LibertyFlames.com for tournament results.