Men’s Golf: No. 21 Cavaliers set to host second annual Lewis Chitengwa Memorial

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 21 Virginia men’s golf team will host the second annual Lewis Chitengwa Memorial on April 10-11 at Birdwood Golf Course to wrap-up its regular season. The event honors the former Cavalier standout who lettered at UVA from 1995 to 1998. The tournament is free to the public.

The 54-hole tournament features an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start on Monday with 36 holes scheduled for the 14-team field. A single round will take place Tuesday starting at 8:30 a.m. from the first and 10th tees.

The field for the event includes (Golfstat 4/7 ranking): Arkansas (40), Auburn (6), East Carolina, Florida State (7), Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Kentucky, Loyola (Md.), Northwestern (31), St. Mary’s, Texas State, UNCW, Virginia and Virginia Tech. Virginia will also field a B team for the tournament.

Playing for the Cavalier A team will be freshman Ben James, juniors George Duangmanee and Chris Fosdick and graduate student Jack Montague and senior Pietro Bovari. James currently leads UVA with a 69.52 stroke average. He is ranked No. 16 in the Golfstat individual rankings.

Virginia will be paired with Auburn and Florida State during the opening round. Those teams will tee off from the first, second, third and fourth holes with the shotgun start. The UVA B team will play with East Carolina and Kennesaw State and start on holes eight, nine and 10.

The tournament’s namesake, Lewis Chitengwa, was a two-time All-American at Virginia (1995, 1996) and earned All-ACC honors in 1995 when he was named the league’s rookie of the year. He finished seventh at the 1996 NCAA Championships, at the time the best finish by a UVA performer in 50 years. During his four-year career he won two tournaments and recorded 17 top-10 finishes.

Chitengwa turned professional in 1998 and played on the Tear Drop, Buy.com and Canadian Tours in addition to competing at the PGA’s St. Jude Memphis Classic. At the age of 26, he passed away as a result of meningitis. At the time, he was competing in the Canadian Tour’s Edmonton Open. In 2015, he was recognized posthumously for his immense contribution to golf by being inducted into Mercedes-Benz Southern African Golf Hall of Fame.

Last year UVA won the tournament by one stroke over runner-up Tennessee. The Cavaliers shot 15-under 837 and were led by Duangmanee’s third-place finish of 7-under 206. Bovari and Fosdick tied for sixth place at 4-under 209.

Live scoring of the tournament will be online at Golfstat.com.