CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - The La Salle men's golf team will tee off on Friday morning at the Atlantic 10 Championship at Heron Bay Golf Club looking to compete with the league's best teams. The Explorers will begin play at 9:00 AM with live statistics available here.

The 54-hole event will continue on Saturday and Sunday with tee times beginning at 7:30 AM.

“It's the kind of course you can be wild off the tee and still be okay,” first year head coach Brad Kane said. “We definitely have guys on the team that can hit it long.

“Last year we finished seventh which was a pretty good performance. I think we can be in the mix and be competitive this year.”

Junior Mike Johnson will lead the charge once again for the Explorers. The Hatboro-Horsham product shot a 71-71=142 (-2) to finish seventh last season at A-10s but was left off the all-conference team. He aims to remedy that omission this weekend.

It was the best finish by an Explorer at A-10s and the lowest 18 and 36 hole scores by a La Salle golfer at the conference championship.

Johnson, the reigning A-10 Golfer of the Week, averaged a team-best 75.6 strokes per round this year. He won the Saint Peter's Peacock Invitational on Tuesday.

Junior Tyler Fewell has the second lowest scoring average at 78.5. He tied for 49^th last season at A-10s with an 80-76=156 (+12). Fewell is tied for the lowest 18-hole round of the season for La Salle with a 71 at the Penn Fall Invitational.

Freshman P.J. Acierno has been the third player for the Explorers this season, carding a 79.1 stroke/average. He also had a 71 to his name this season at the Manor Intercollegiate. Ten of his last 11 rounds have been in the 70s.

Sophomore Greg Goodreds (80.3) and junior Tommy Horgan (81.5) round out the Blue and Gold lineup at A-10s. Goodreds is coming off a collegiate low round of 75 at Saint Peter's.

About the Atlantic 10 Championship
The Explorers will tee it up with 13 other conference rivals, including Butler, Charlotte, Dayton, Fordham, George Washington, Rhode Island, Richmond, Saint Joseph's, St. Bonaventure, Temple, VCU and Xavier. 

Charlotte has won a record six A-10 titles, while George Washington captured last year's rain-shortened event.

About Heron Bay GC
For six years (1997-2002) the PGA TOUR`S Honda Classic called Heron Bay home, crowning champions Stuart Appleby, Mark Calcavecchia, Vijay Singh, Dudley Hart, Jesper Parnevik and Matt Kuchar. It now is the permanent site of the prestigious and historic Dixie Amateur, one of the top-ranked amateur tournaments in the world.

When the course opened in 1996 as the TPC at Heron Bay, it was named one of America's 10 best new public golf courses by Golf Digest. Golf Magazine ranks it one of the top 10 daily-fee courses in Florida.

The par-72 course plays 7,258 yards from the tips with a rating of 74.9 and a slope of 133. The blue tees are 6,781 yards with a 72.7/128 rating.