Slade Pickering signs with Hokies

South African junior star to join team in Fall 2017

April 12, 2017

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech men’s golf program has announced that highly ranked international player Slade Pickering has signed a national letter of intent to attend Virginia Tech and play golf for the Hokies in Fall 2017.

Pickering, from North West, South Africa, is currently ranked No. 7 of all juniors (U19) and No. 31 in GolfRSA, South Africa’s amateur ranking, as well as the Top U19 player in his province (state) with a stroke average of 66.9.

He is the reigning 2016 Joburg Junior Open champion, capturing the title in December with rounds of 64-70=134. He was selected to represent his province and was team captain in the South African Boys U19 Championship. He finished third in the stroke play portion of the 2017 South African National Amateur with rounds of 63-68=131 before falling in the second round of match play. Pickering shot 72-63-73=208 (8-under par) to finish second in the recent Nomads Inland championship and won the Woodlands Junior Masters championship in 2015 and 2016.

“Slade has enjoyed tremendous success on an international level and we are excited that he is bringing his talents to Virginia Tech,” head coach Jay Hardwick said. “He is mentored at Golfguys Academy by our first-ever player from Zimbabwe, Sean Farrell (’96), who was an outstanding player in his own right. Slade has many of the same qualities that first attracted me to Sean and I look for him to continue in that same trend.”

Pickering joins Connor Burgess in the Hokies’ recruiting class. Burgess, from Lynchburg, Virginia, signed an NLI in November. Both players will enroll and begin their Virginia Tech careers in Fall 2017.

The Hokies will conclude the 2016-17 regular season this weekend at the Wolfpack Spring Open in Raleigh, North Carolina and will compete in the 2017 ACC Men’s Golf Championship at the Musgrove Mill Golf Club in Clinton, South Carolina next weekend.

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