Former Virginia Tech golfer Johnson Wagner will tee off at 9:40 a.m. in the first round of the Masters Tournament on Thursday morning at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.

Wagner, currently second on the FedEx Cup list on fourth on the PGA Tour money list, was the PGA Tour Player of the Month for January 2012. He will be grouped with Hideki Matsuyama and two-time Masters champion, Tom Watson. This is Wagner’s second appearance in what is one of golf’s premier events. He tied for 36^th in the 2008 Masters.

Johnson Wagner, who played golf for the Hokies from 1998-2002, is currently the leader in points for the FedExCup. The FedExCup is a season-long competition in which players accumulate points in each eligible FedExCup Points event. At the end of the season, the winning player will be crowned the PGA TOUR FedExCup Champion.

Wagner, who was named the PGA Tour Player of the Month for January, tied for fourth place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25 and in doing so, passed Rory McIlroy into the lead in the standings. The leader in FedExCup points following The Tour Championship will win a $10,000,000 bonus.

Wagner, who won the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, will compete in the 2012 Masters Tournament April 5-8 in Augusta, Ga.

Virginia Tech graduate and former Tech golfer Johnson Wagner has been selected the PGA Tour Player of the Month, presented by Avis, for the month of January.

Wagner won the Sony Open on Jan. 15, marking his third career PGA Tour victory. Also, he finished tied for ninth at the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions and he tied for second at the Humana Challenge on Jan. 22.

He was nominated in January along with Steve Stricker, Mark Wilson and Brandt Snedeker. Wagner won the award in an on-line vote on PGATour.com.

With the award, Avis will present a check for $50,000 to be distributed to charity. Wagner has announced he will donate half the award money to the First Tee Foundation and the other half to the Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C.

Despite not playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, former Tech golfer Johnson Wagner remained in second place on both the PGA Tour’s money list and in the FedEx Cup rankings.

Wagner has played in four tournaments this season, making the cut in all four and winning the Sony Open in Hawaii. In three of those four, he has recorded top-10 finishes. For the season, he has earned $1.586 million, which ranks behind only Kyle Stanley’s $1.793 million on the list. He’s also behind Stanley in FedEx Cup points.

Another former Tech golfer, Brendon de Jonge, ranks 35^th on the money list with $302,400 in earnings and 31^st in the FedEx Cup rankings. De Jonge has one top-10 finish and two top-25 finishes this season.

Both Wagner and de Jonge, who also did not play in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, are scheduled to play in the Northern Trust Open held at Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles on Feb. 16-19. The $6.6 million purse is one of the largest on the Tour, excluding the majors.

Former Virginia Tech golfer Johnson Wagner is one of four players nominated for the PGA Tour Player of the Month, presented by Avis, for the month of January.

Wagner won the Sony Open on Jan. 15, marking his third career PGA Tour victory. Also, he finished tied for ninth at the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions and he tied for second at the Humana Challenge on Jan. 22.

Wagner is nominated this month along with Steve Stricker, Mark Wilson and Brandt Snedeker.

To vote for Wagner, go to:

http://www.pgatour.com/pom/

Former Virginia Tech golfer Johnson Wagner won his third PGA Tour event with a two-stroke victory at the Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday evening. With the win, Wagner is exempt on the PGA Tour through 2014 and earns a berth in this year’s Masters and next season’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Wagner shot a final round three-under-par 67 and finished with a four-day total of 13-under-par 267, two strokes ahead of four golfers who tied at 269. Wagner played bogey-free golf over the final 12 holes to secure the victory.

As a result of the victory, Wagner claimed 500 FedEx points and earned a paycheck of $990,000. With his ninth place finish in last week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Wagner claims an early lead in the FedEx points race. He has 575 FedEx points, 45 ahead of Steve Stricker, who won last week in Maui.

Wagner was not the only Hokie to fare well at the Waialea Country Club this weekend, as former teammate Brendon de Jonge finished tied for 10^th place at the event. He pocketed $137,500 in the tournament, as well as 70 FedEx points.

Former Virginia Tech golfer Johnson Wagner finished in a tie for ninth place at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui, Hawaii. Wagner shot a four-round total of 13-under-par 279, including a six-under-par 67 in Monday’s final round.

Wagner, who claimed a berth in the winner’s-only event with a victory in last season’s Mayakoba Golf Classic, earned $165,000 with his finish. He will compete in this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, along with former Hokie teammate Brendon de Jonge.

Virginia Tech golfer Scott Vincent (Harare, Zimbabwe) shot a 15-under-par 201 and won the 2011 Valentine Invitational by five strokes over Adam Ball and Weston Eklund on Sunday afternoon. The prestigious amateur tournament was played this weekend at the Hermitage Country Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va., just outside of Richmond.

Vincent, who begins his freshman year at Virginia Tech this morning, opened play Friday and Saturday with a pair of eight-under-par 64s, before shooting a 73 on Sunday at Hermitage’s Sabot Course. This is the second consecutive year that a Hokie has won this event. Marshall Bailey won the Valentine last year.

Other Hokies also played well in the 54-hole tournament. Senior Blake Redmond (Sugar Land, Texas) finished tied for fourth at 209, recent graduate Garland Green (Tazewell, Va.) finished tied for ninth at 216 and incoming freshman Trevor Cone (Concord, N.C.) was tied for 11^th at 217. Incoming freshman Miles Curley (Rock Hill, S.C.) and junior Mikey Moyers (Stanardsville, Va.) both shot 224; sophomore Marc MacDonald (Harare, Zimbabwe) shot 228, and sophomore Jacob Everts (Ooltewah, Tenn.) was at 234.  

Vincent’s 64 on Friday at the Sabot Course and Saturday at the Manakin Course were competitive course records for each course. The Hokies will play the Manakin Course as a team on Sept. 26 & 27, as they will compete in the VCU Shootout. The entire Tech team competed in the Valentine, with the exception of sophomore Bryce Chalkley (Richmond, Va.) who begins play in the U.S. Amateur this morning in Erin, Wisc.

Virginia Tech’s Bryce Chalkley defeated two competitors, including teammate Mikey Moyers, in a playoff to claim the final spot out of the U.S. Amateur sectional qualifying at the Country Club of Petersburg Monday in Petersburg, Va.

Hokie golfer Bryce Chalkley fell to Ji Soo Park on the first extra hole in the semifinals of the 98^th annual Virginia State Golf Association Amateur Championship, being conducted at The Virginian Golf Club in Bristol, Virginia on Friday afternoon.

Former Virginia Tech golfer Drew Weaver finished in a tie for 45^th place at The Memorial Tournament held at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, over the weekend.

Weaver, who is a regular on the eGolf Tour, received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the tournament, and shot rounds of 71, 70, 75 and 72 on the par-72 layout. He finished at even par for the tournament.

Weaver made the cut for a PGA event for the third time in 10 career events. For his efforts, Weaver pocketed $17,732. The paycheck is more than the $14,000 and change he had earned on the eGolf Tour this season.

Two other former Tech golfers made the cut. Brendon de Jonge and Johnson Wagner both finished in a tie for 63^rd with five others after shooting 4-over-par. Both brought home $12,896.

Wagner, who won the Mayakoba Classic in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, in late February, has made $861,186 this season, while de Jonge has made $644,788. De Jonge, though, ranks 51^st in the FedEx Cup standings, while Wagner comes in at 66^th.

Former Tech golfers Drew Weaver, Johnson Wagner and Brendon de Jonge will be playing this weekend, as all three made the cut at The Memorial Tournament played at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

Weaver, who is playing on the eGolf Tour and received a sponsor’s exemption to play in The Memorial, had the best day of the three. He shot 2-under par-70 and is at 3-under for the tournament – just six shots off the lead.  Weaver had four birdies and four bogeys, but had an eagle on the par-5 527-yard No. 5. 

De Jonge shot 1-over on Friday after shooting 1-under in the opening round. He is at level par for the tournament.

Wagner struggled a bit on Friday, shooting 2-over-par. He shot 1-under on Thursday and is at 1-over for the tournament. The cut line was 1-over.

The Tech programs recognized were men’s basketball, men’s cross country, golf, men’s tennis, women’s swimming and diving and volleyball.

 The APR is a metric established and used by the NCAA to measure a program’s success in moving student-athletes toward graduation. An APR score of 925 is the minimum level of academic success, and teams scoring below 925 can lose scholarships and face other sanctions over time, including bans on postseason play.

 Full APR scores for all teams, including penalties for low-performing teams, will be released May 24.

Former Hokie golfer Johnson Wagner won his second PGA TOUR title this past weekend at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in El Camaleon, Riviera Maya, Mexico. Wagner was leading the event by one stroke heading into the final round on Sunday and fired a bogey-free 4-under par 67 to finish 17-under par and tied with Spencer Levin, who shot 65 on Sunday. Wagner won the event with a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.

Wagner made just two bogeys in four days, shooting rounds of 69-66-65-67=267. For the week, Wagner made 17 birdies, one eagle, and 53 pars. Wagner took home a check for $660,000.  He receives a two-year exemption to all regular season events on the PGA TOUR.

Mayakoba is Wagner’s second victory in a PGA Tour event since graduating from Virginia Tech in 2002. He also won the 2008 Shell Houston Open. He is one of two former Hokie golfers with exempt status on the PGA Tour. Former teammate Brendon de Jonge finished 34^th on the money list a year ago to maintain his Tour card.

Weaver, who won a first-stage event at Pinewild Country Club outside of Pinehurst, N.C., will play his second stage at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, on Nov. 17-20.  TPC Craig Ranch is a par-72, 7,438-yard track designed by PGA Tour legend and golf course architect Tom Weiskopf.

MacDonald, who finished eighth at a first-stage event at Dayton Valley in Dayton, Nev., will play his second stage at Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas, on Nov. 16-19. Redstone Golf Club, designed by Rees Jones, is home to the PGA Tour’s Houston Open.

The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech, home of the Virginia Tech golf team, has been selected as one of the nation's top collegiate courses. Golfweek has released its 2010 list of Best Campus Courses and "The River" debuts at No. 18.  The top 30 courses in America were named with The Course at Yale in the top spot.  A total of five Atlantic Coast Conference courses made the list.  The Duke University Golf Club, which has hosted two NCAA Championships, is No. 10; the new Lonnie Poole Golf Course at NC State is No. 22; UNC’s Finley Golf Course is No. 24; and the University of Virginia’s Birdwood Golf Course is No. 30.

A total of four Pete Dye designs are included in the list. No. 16 Radick Farms at the University of Michigan; No. 17 Kampen Golf Course at Purdue, site of 2008 NCAA Championship; No. 18  Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech; No. 29 Karsten Golf Course at Arizona State.  The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech will host the 2011 NCAA East Regional Golf Championship.

Virginia Tech golfer Marshall Bailey won the 2010 Valentine Invitational over the weekend at the Hermitage Country Club in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia.

Bailey, a senior from Fincastle, Virginia, shot a three-round total of seven-under-par 209 to claim a three-stroke victory over former University of Richmond golfer Jordan Utley of Greensboro, North Carolina.

The tournament was played on both of Hermitage's courses, the Sabot and Manakin. Bailey opened with a one-under 71 on the Sabot, followed with a four-under 68 on the Manakin course and shot 70 on the Sabot course on Sunday. He was one of two players to break par in each round.

The Manakin Course of Hermitage Country Club will be the site of the VCU Shootout, the Hokies’ second event of the fall season at the end of September.

Bailey was one of six Hokies in the event and all six finished in the top 12. Sophomore Jacob Everts and freshman Bryce Chalkley tied for seventh place at 215. Senior Garland Green was the 36-hole leader and finished tied with junior Blake Redmond for 10^th place at 216 and senior Aaron Eckstein was tied for 12^th at 218.