SALEM, Va. --- The 2007 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Golf Championship is set for three rounds of action at Poplar Grove Golf Club in Amherst, Virginia.  The first of three rounds in the nine-team competition begins on Saturday, April 21, at 12:00 p.m.  Rounds two and three follow on Sunday and Monday, both with tee times for 9:00 a.m.

Poplar Grove will provide the ODAC golfers with a quality test of their skills as the course was rated #8 in the country in the “best new upscale public facility” category in the January 2006 issue of Golf Digest.

The last design of legendary PGA golfer Sam Snead, Poplar Grove is cut out native Virginia forest with magnificent views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Golfers will have to be on top of their games to shoot par 72 or better on Poplar Grove’s landscape.  ODAC players will be faced with 7,009 yards of winding fairways and well-placed hazards from the back tees, requiring both length and control from tee to green.

Guilford College (295.9 round average) comes into the tournament a 7.5-stroke favorite based on team round averages.  The Quakers’ probable five players all shoot sub-78 on average, helping Guilford to a #2 national ranking in the latest Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches Poll Top 25 and the Goftstat.com National Statistical Rankings.  Joseph Poplin leads the Quakers with a 72.21 stroke average, having finished in the top 15 in eight of his nine tournaments played including a pair of second place cards.  While Poplin has yet to find his first individual medal in 2007, teammates Burton Wood and Peter Latimer have made their way atop the podium, giving the Quakers a trio of athletes with a chance to win the tournament.

Bridgewater College and Washington & Lee University will give Guilford a run for its money.  The Eagles (303.4 round average) come into the championship with its probable five players separated by only five strokes, each posting a scoring average of 78.3 strokes per round or better.  Grady Ruckman leads Bridgewater with a 74.6 stroke average.  His low round of the season came in arguably the toughest competition of the year at the Camp LeJeune Invitational, carding a 6-under-par 66.  Colten Ray bettered Ruckman by one at Camp LeJeune, posting a 65 in the third round.

Washington & Lee (305.3 round average) comes in #23 in the Golf World/Nike Coaches Poll, and boasts national player of the year candidate, Nathaniel James.  James (73.7 per round average) has won on three of the seven tournaments he has played this season, taking individual medalist at Camp LeJeune, the Randolph-Macon Ted Keller Invitational, and the Transylvania Fall Invitational.