• Coach Leggett finally reached the 1,000 win milestone. David Kopp threw seven scoreless innings and the Tiger bats struck early for 3 runs in the 2nd inning. The win kept the Tigers from being swept by Maryland for the first time ever.
• Trevor Booker’s little, I mean younger brother verbally committed to the Tiger basketball team. Devin is 6′7″, 215ish pounds, and the first commitment for the class of ‘09.
• Lucas Glover won $69,500 as he finished tied for 26th at the WGC-CA Championship. [Hopefully I'll remember to keep up with more of the former Clemson golfers through the course of the year.]
• Travis Padgett went on to victory in the 100-meters at the Clemson Relays on Saturday. The NCAA 60-meters champion posted a 10.22 second time that qualifies him for regionals. He and the 4×100 relay team also posted a regional qualifying time.

Invest in orthopedic surgeons: Hamlin had surgery for a stress fracture in the foot he didn’t already break, and ManBearPig also had “minor foot surgery.” Hamlin’s injury should mean more reps for DeAndre McDaniel.

Clemson golf is heading into the third and final round of play at the Puerto Rico Classic. They’re currently tied for fourth. It turns out the Clemson golf team doesn’t stop their low scoring on the course; they extend that ethic to the classroom where they averaged a stellar 2.30 last fall. Good work there, men.

Travis Storrer, signed a contract to play with the Chillicothe Paints.

Some guy on FoxSports says that Gaines Adams was the “star of the day” at the NFL combine yesterday. “Basically he made himself a whole lot of money this week, confirming all the positives regarding his athleticism and explosiveness.”

Yes, we are a bunch of football junkies at Gnome HQ, we admit it. After the big win, in Tally, at night, on ESPN (I thought this was the perfect storm brewing against us based on recent trends) but it’s time to give some of the other sports their respected attention.

When I say attention, I really mean hellacious props. The Mens Soccer team is off to an 8-0 start, their best since 1978 (yes better than those two National Champion teams of the ‘80’s) and look to continue to roll against the Wolfpack in conference play this Sunday in Raleigh. The team’s number 1 overall ranking in the Soccer Coaches Poll is the 30^th such ranking for the team but the first since 1998. The Tigers are ranked second in the Soccer America poll. The win over #5 UNC helped launch the team to their current ranking, after beating a highly touted Maryland team two weeks ago.

The golf team opened the year at #4 and didn’t disappoint in their first outing. Playing in the Carpet Classic in Dalton GA this past weekend, the Tiger Golf team took a second place finish in a field featuring 8 of the top 17 teams in the nation. The team took a 4 stroke lead into Sunday’s play before finishing 6 back of Alabama for the title. The team was anchored by two freshmen, Ben Martin and Kyle Stanley who took 3^rd and 11^th respectively on an individual level. Martin’s 64 on Saturday was a team freshmen record. They will back in action the first week in October in Williamsburg Va.

The women’s soccer team is off to a decent start as well at 4-2 with a heartbreaking loss to USuCk in Columbia last Friday night, 1-0. They took the Carolina’s Cup played in Greenville SC earlier this month. Other participants in the tourney were Charlotte and Furman. On the road the week prior, the team took losses to Colorado and Denver at the Colorado Invitational on a quick Rocky Mountain swing. The Lady Tiger’s crank up ACC play this week with Maryland on the road as they start a brutal conference schedule with about half the games away from the friendly confines of Riggs field.

Tiger volleyball is back on track. A home tourney always helps. After having some struggles in Indiana, the Tigers have been hot since returning home, with their only loss in the last four matches being to USuCk. They hit the road this weekend with matches at Duke and Wake while the football crowd takes over campus. Unofficial gnomette Jeanette Abbott has continued to lead the team in kills. Good luck ladies. These gnomes enjoy watching…seriously, we do!

The rowing team kicked off the fall season with a 4 and 8 person boat sweeps of the Tail of the Tiger. The event was more of a warm-up as they were competing against the Clemson and UGA club squads. Watch for the on the lake Sunday as they hold the annual class day regatta on Lake Hartwell.

In all the pre-season football hype, I somehow managed to forget about the pre-season college golf hype.

As you may recall, two of the top-10 high school players were bound for Clemson this fall.

Add them to a team that came on strong at the end of last season and you start off with a pretty good national ranking.

Clemson has a shot at the national title, Golfweek says, if “the Tigers can carry over their play from the summer and continue it through the college season.” Three players — Ben Martin, Tanner Ervin and Phillip Mollica — won top amateur events, and freshmen Sam Saunders and Kyle Stanley, named among the nation’s top 10 newcomers, give Clemson “the potential for something special.”

I’m looking for good things from the team this year. For as good as the team should be though, if you see a lot of posts about them by me this fall, it could be a bad sign for the football program.

Geezus, so much for my high hopes of the Clemson field at Medina. Nearly as soon as day 1’s good news was posted, the proverbial “shit” started hitting the proverbial “fan.”

While Tiger was playing wonderfully consistent golf, Glover, Byrd, and Warren were all over the place.

For the four rounds, Glover was -6, +2, +5, E, to finish at +1 and in 46th position.

Byrd was more consistently good albeit hampered by two double bogeys on Friday. He went -3, E, +2, -4 to finish at 5-under in 20th.

Charles Warren, who I believe made the field as an alternate just couldn’t find any positive momentum down the stretch. He put together rounds of +1, -2, +5, and +3 to finish at 8-over-par in 62nd.

First, congratulations do go to all those guys for making the cut. Second, in a typical major those kinds of scores would have been a lot more competitive. It’s a damn shame that field was better able to take advantage of the relative ease of conditions.

But, as the saying goes, the worst day on the golf course…

Lucas Glover finished the first round this year’s PGA tied for first at 6-under par. Johnathan Byrd was tied with notables Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson who trailed Glover by 3 strokes at the end of day. Charles Warren finished the first round at +1 as 4 bogeys overshadowed a birdie on 11 and an eagle on par 5 7. Reports from the course say the greens are playing soft and slow, so we may expect that scoring will remain aggressive.

More from the press release: Glover “is the first former Clemson golfer to have the lead after any round of a professional major.” He is also “the first former Tiger to play in all four majors in the same year. ”

Checking the live scoring Byrd is -3 through 10 on the day, Warren is even through 3, and Glover doesn’t tee off for a couple more hours.

Kyle Stanley took the amateur competition this weekend as read HERE. Congrats to the Tiger and thanks for making Clemson look that much better in the sport of Golf. Now if only I could get my driver over the marsh on the first hole at Walker…..(yes I know it’s only 50 yards out).

It was a sound weekend for Clemson golfers at the Wachovia Championship this weekend. It was also a wet Sunday. A steady rain kept scores high today. Only 14 golfers came in under par. Under those conditions holding steady was good enough.

And holding steady, was primarily what Warren, Trahan, and Glover did today.

Trahan was even par on the day, finishing 3 under and tied for 14th.

Warren managed the best round of the three at 1 under. He finished -4 and tied for 12th.

Lucas Glover, who’s becoming Ol’ Reliable, battled for a round of 72 to finish 7 under and tied for 5th. That gives Lucas 6 top tens and 10 top twenty-fives on the year.

Altogether, the 3 of them carded 12 birdies en route to finishing the day at a net 1 under-par. Yeah, the weather was that much fun. Had I had tickets, I’d have traded them for a trip to the pub.