Big Break Invitational Website
Byrne Wins Big Break Indian Wells

ORLANDO, Fla. (9/19/2014) -- Former Titan standout, President's Award winner and Horizon League Player of the Year David Byrne will be in the spotlight again on the Golf Channel as he was one of 40 participants selected to compete in the inaugural Big Break Invitational.
 
The event will take place from Sept. 30-Oct. 3 on the Great Waters Course at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga., and will feature a $300,000 overall purse, with $100,000 going to the champion. The four-day invitational will air live on the Golf Channel.
 
Back in the summer of 2011, Byrne took center stage by winning the Golf Channel's reality television show Big Break Indian Wells. The victory gave Byrne an automatic exemption to the 2012 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, over $70,000 in cash prizes, a paid trip for two back to the Indian Wells Golf Resort, an Adams golf endorsement deal and a 10,000 Shopping spree to Dicks Sporting Goods.
 
Since that time, Byrne has competed on the PGA Tour and is currently a member of PGA TOUR Canada and several mini tours.
 
Byrne came to the Motor City as a heralded prep earning a berth in the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, as well as tying for eighth at the 2006 Ontario Junior Tournament of Champions, 10th at the Ontario Junior and 18th at the Future Links Ontario Championship. He was a three-time Ontario Match Play Champion and was also the top-ranked amateur in Ontario in 2007.
 
As a Titan, Byrne was a true student athlete and was a winner on and off the course. A four-year member of the Detroit Athletic Director's Honor Roll, he was twice tabbed an All-America Scholar by the Golf Coaches Association of America as well as selected to the Horizon League's Spring All-Academic Team. In 2010, he received the athletic department's highest honor in the President's Award – given to UDM's most-outstanding senior student-athlete.
 
On the links, Byrne helped Detroit capture two Horizon League titles in 2007 and 2010, sending the red, white and blue to a pair of NCAA Regional Championships. He was the medalist at the Horizon League Championship as a freshman in 2007, a three-time HL All-Tournament performer and is just the second golfer in school history to be selected All-League in all four of his years. Along with his HL Newcomer of the Year in 2007, he ended his collegiate career as the League's Player of the Year as a senior and is still Detroit's all-time leader in career average at 73.56.
 
The first two rounds of the tournament will feature a Modified Stableford format (players earning points for birdie and higher and negative points for bogey and lower), with the 12 men and 12 women earning the most points after the first two rounds making the cut. Thursday's third round will feature match play (six men vs. six men / six women vs. six women), with 12 match-play winners advancing to Friday's final round of 18-holes of stroke play.
 
The field also includes PGA TOUR winner Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey, LPGA Tour and Solheim Cup veterans Gerina Piller, Kristy McPherson and Ryann O'Toole – all former Big Break contestants – as well as NFL Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice (who competed on Big Break NFL last fall).