Fri Apr 11 15:34:32 2008

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Wagner, Weaver playing in honor of Hokie Nation

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Augusta, GA (Sports Network) - Johnson Wagner won just last week in Houston to earn his invitation to The Masters. Drew Weaver won the British Amateur last summer to get his.

They two have two things in common. Both players are competing at The Masters for the first time and both played college golf at Virginia Tech.

Wagner was a two-time Big East performer and was the medalist at the 2002 Big East Championship. Weaver, who is a junior this year, helped lead Virginia Tech to the ACC title in 2007.

Weaver struggled this week with rounds of 76-80 and will miss the cut.

"I was trying to concentrate out there, but it's hard not to notice all the support and friends I had," said Weaver on a blog on Masters.org after the first round. "The Hokie Nation certainly came out in force to support me and that was nice to see."

Wagner recovered from an early triple-bogey Friday to shoot a two-over 74. He finished two rounds at plus-two and will make the cut, but he trails leader Trevor Immelman by 10 shots.

The Virginia Tech tie-in runs deep with both players as it was nearly one year ago -- April 16th to be exact -- that the Blacksburg campus saw the worst massacre on a college campus in United States history.

Wagner, who is several years removed from being a student at Virginia Tech, struggled badly after the tragedy. He missed the cut in his next nine starts and 13 of his next 14 overall.

Weaver, who was in class when the shooting started, turned the tragedy into triumph.

"I was in accounting class and around 9:30 we got an e-mail about the first shooting, so that was obviously very disturbing, but we didn't really have a clue what was happening," Weaver explained earlier this week.

"We heard a lot of sirens and got out of class around 9:45 and there was SWAT teams everywhere and it was kind of chaos. We heard the shots go off and it was a terrifying few seconds, probably five or six shots in a really short span, and everyone pretty much freaked and ran as far as we could get away from the scene."

Many sporting events on campus were postponed in the wake of the tragedy, but the ACC Golf Tournament started four days later and the Hokies team decided go and play to honor their fellow students who died.

"Our golf team went out and performed well at ACCs and won, and that was great," Weaver explained. "But you know, we've had so many other teams right after April 16th that went out and performed well and just all of the events that we had with the President speaking and just going to that and feeling the sense of togetherness. It's just such a bad loss, but you can never imagine how well we've rebounded."

Heading into the final round, the Hokies were tied for fourth place. However, they closed with a nine-under 279 to join Georgia Tech at 10-under-par 854. It was determined that the teams would share the title. Weaver closed with a two- under 70 to share 12th place at even-par 216 in the individual competition.

"Virginia Tech winning the ACC tournament last year right after what happened on April 16, that was maybe one of the greatest accomplishments in golf," Wagner said earlier this week. "They kind of came from nowhere, and it was great to see."