FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Continuing a tradition that officially began back in 2006, the Nova Southeastern men's and women's golf programs are set to host the 12^th annual GolfRank Invitational at PGA National Golf Resort and Spa from October 9-10. 

The three-round tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday followed by 18 more on Tuesday. Both the men and women will use a shotgun-start format beginning at 8:30 a.m. prior to the start of each round. The official 2017 GolfRank Invitational tournament page can be found here.
 
2017 GolfRank Invitational 
 
The 11-team field on the men's side will battle it out on the prestigious Champion course, home of the "Bear Trap", which is projected to play as a 6,906-yard, par-72 course. The tournament will have a Super Regional-type feel, given six of the 11 programs in attendance currently rank among the nation's Top-10 in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Division II Coaches Poll. Joining the fifth-ranked Sharks will be unanimous No. 1 West Florida, No. 3 Florida Southern, No. 4 Barry, No. 6 Florida Tech and T-No. 10 Saint Leo. In addition, the field will consist of Sunshine State Conference members, Eckerd and Embry-Riddle, along with Johnson & Wales (Fla.), Keiser and Wilmington (Del.).
A new champion will be crowned in 2017, as 2016 tournament winner Lynn will not compete in this year's event. However, Barry's Niclas Weiland will look to take home individual medalist honors for the second consecutive time after holding on for the two-stroke victory with a score of (-5) 211 a year ago.
 
Similar to the men's tournament, the women's field will be loaded with top-notch programs in 2017. Set to compete on the projected on the 6,055-yard, par-72 Fazio course, the women's tournament will feature seven teams that qualified for the 2017 NCAA South Super Regional, including: Nova Southeastern, Barry, Florida Tech, Lynn, Rollins, Saint Leo and West Florida. Also participating will be Embry-Riddle, Florida Southern, Johnson & Wales (Fla.), Keiser, Merrimack, Palm Beach Atlantic and Tampa.  
Florida Southern outlasted Nova Southeastern in the 2016 GolfRank Invitational, beating the Sharks by seven strokes with a collective score of (+19) 595. The Moccasins were led by Tori Higgins, who went on to capture the individual title with an even-par 144.
 
The NSU men are two weeks removed from their fifth-place finish at the season-opening Griffin Invitational. Their efforts were enough to help them climb from No. 11 to No. 5 in the most recent national poll released on September 29. The women, meanwhile, started the fall off with a bang after earning the NCAA Division II National Preview championship in Houston. Individual medalist Jamie Freedman ignited the Sharks, as head coach Heather Wall's team finished with three players among the Top-10 on the leaderboard.


Similar to other online travel search and review sites, GolfRank was designed exclusively for individual golfers to rate and discover new courses on a mobile application. GolfRank's point scoring method is based off of six questions that apply to any course in any location unlike other golf sites that only provide a star-based rating system or long written reviews by golfers. From the six questions answered by GolfRank users, the app will then generate an overall ranking for the course played and produce a list of the top courses users have played at. GolfRank users do not need to be a golf expert in order to rank courses since the questions apply to the individual user's experience at a course.

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