The Hall Eyes Third BIG EAST Title in Four Years

OKATIE, S.C. – The Seton Hall men's golf team will look to defend its title when it plays the 2025 BIG EAST Championship this weekend at Callawassie Island Golf Club in Okatie, S.C.

The Pirates are coming off a strong showing during the 2024-25 year, claiming six top-3 finishes, including a share of the championships at the Alex Lagowitz Memorial and the Sweetens Cove Intercollegiate. Seton Hall's 292.67 scoring average for the year is the fifth-best scoring average in program history.

Senior George Fricker (Woodbridge, England) leads the Pirates with a 73.11 scoring average, and won the GlenArbor Invite with a 5-under-par, 139, tied for the third-lowest score for a par-72, two-round tournament in program history.

Seton Hall will be looking for its third BIG EAST title in the last four years. Overall, the program has won the team BIG EAST title four times, and is the defending champion. Four individuals have claimed the conference championship as well, including 2022 graduate Gregor Tait, who was a remarkable 11-under-par.

Tournament Details:
2025 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
Host: BIG EAST Conference
Location: Okatie, S.C.
Resort: Callawassie Island Golf Club
Course Vitals: Par-72, 6,911 yards
Dates: April 26-28, 2025

THE COURSE
The club features three nine-hole courses. The competition will play the first nine holes on the Dogwood Course and the second nine on the Magnolia Course. Designing Callawassie Island's award-winning championship 27-hole course, Tom Fazio took advantage of the island's natural beauty to create a juxtaposition of visual drama and superb playability. Magnificent live oaks and magnolias, as well as freshwater ponds and the surrounding saltwater marsh, come into play on most holes. Inspiring vistas and abundant wildlife make nature part of the golf experience.

The 2024 BIG EAST Championship will be played on the Magnolia and Dogwood courses.

THE FIELD
The field will be limited to only the 10-member schools of the BIG EAST Conference. Below are the teams in order of their national ranking.

Marquette – 46
Xavier – 136
Connecticut – 152
Butler – 172
SETON HALL – 173
St. John's – 180
Georgetown – 185
DePaul – 198
Creighton – 204
Villanova – 221

THE FORMAT
Teams will play five golfers and count the four lowest scores per round.

THE LINEUP
Seton Hall will be bringing the following lineup to South Carolina:

Patrick Kahanek, Senior
George Fricker, Senior
David Lally, Junior
Will Hennessee, Freshman
Eli Shah, Sophomore

Available for substitution if necessary: Jack Bosworth, Junior

LAST TIME OUT
Senior Patrick Kahanek (San Antonio, Texas) capped a career-best tournament with a 1-under-par, 69, on April 15 to lift the Seton Hall men's golf team to a second-place finish at the Shark Invitational.

Kahanek had two birdies and 15 pars in route to a 1-under-par, 69, in the final round to finish just one stroke shy of the individual title. Instead, he finished in second place among 71 individual golfers with a 4-under-par, 68-69-69-206. It's Kahanek's third career sub-par tournament and his first top-5.

As a team, The Hall shot its best round of the event, a 2-over-par, 282, in round three. The Pirates finished second in the field of 12 teams with an 11-over-par, 286-283-282.

LAST YEAR AT THE BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
For the second time in three years and the fourth time overall, the Seton Hall men's golf team won the BIG EAST Conference Championship last spring. With a strong, team-wide final-round effort, the Pirates bested second-place Butler by five strokes to win the title and claim the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Disappointed with his performance after the first two rounds, George Fricker (Woodbridge, England) highlighted The Hall's final round effort with a 3-under-par, 69, in round three. Fricker had only one blemish on an otherwise brilliant round, a bogey on the sixth hole, at Riverton Pointe Golf & Country Club. He used four birdies and 13 pars to fuel the top single round of the tournament for any Pirate. His performance enabled him to race up the leaderboard and finish tied for 28th with a 10-over-par, 79-78-69-226.

As a team, the Pirates never dropped out of the top spot in round three. The Hall entered the round with a two-stroke cushion on Butler, and saw it grow to as many as double-digits and shrink to as few as two again. In the end, Seton Hall shot an even-par, 288, its best round of the tournament, to hold off the field and edge Butler by five strokes.

THE STAKES
The BIG EAST will crown a team champion, which earns an automatic berth to the 2025 NCAA Championship. The individual champion also receives an NCAA Championship invitation.

TEE TIMES
The field will play one round (18 holes) over each day for three days. Competition on Friday and Saturday will begin at 8:00 a.m. On Championship Monday, the action will begin at 8:30 a.m. Seton Hall will be paired with golfers from Butler and St. John's in round one. Eli Shah will get the Pirates started with a tee time of 9:30 a.m. off the first hole.

THE RESULTS
Live scoring will be available via Scoreboard.clippd.com. Full day results will also be available at SHUPirates.com.