Saturday, August 13, 2005

            WHEATON, Ill. (August 13, 2005) - East Tennessee State rising junior Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) captured one and a half of a possible two points during the first day of play Saturday in the 40^th Walker Cup matches at the Chicago Golf Club.

In the opening match of the day, Davies and teammate Nigel Edwards split their alternate shot match with the American team of Anthony Kim and Brian Hartman. Then, in the afternoon match play round, Davies dominated Florida senior Matt Every, birding four straight holes beginning on No. 12 and walking away with an impressive 5-and-4 victory.

 "The match was even going into twelve, but Rhys really took control from there," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren, who is in Chicago for the event. "I think he was pleased with the way the afternoon turned out."

While Davies' provided a strong effort, it was not enough to give his Great Britian & Ireland squad an advantage, as the United States ended the day leading 6½ to 5½ overall. The two teams will enter Sunday's play with another 12 points on the line. The United States has lost four of the last five Walker Cup matches, which is a biennial international event matching the best amateurs from America against the best from Great Britain & Ireland.

The opportunity to play in the Walker Cup only continues to help Davies build an impressive amateur resume, and comes after a sophomore season at ETSU in which he was ranked in the Top 3 nationally throughout much of the season and enjoyed arguably the most successful individual season in ETSU golf history. Davies set Buccaneer records for individual championships (five), single-round score (63), and three-round score (199), while helping lead the Bucs to their 17^th Southern Conference men's golf championship and finishing second on the individual leaderboard at the NCAA East Regional.