By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – As spring creeps ever closer, the Tennessee Tech men's golf team is locking down its final preparations for the second half of its 2019-20 slate. The upcoming spring schedule provides five challenges for the Golden Eagles, each of which should seem familiar to the veteran members of the squad.
After skipping the event last year, the purple and gold makes its way back to the Bash at the Beach from Mar. 9-10 at the Surf Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The annual event will once again be hosted by Appalachian State.
"There are a few changes to the spring schedule this year from past seasons," Tech head coach Polk Brown said. "We're going back to Myrtle Beach for the first event of the spring. It's been a couple of years since we've been there and we're looking forward to going back. It's an old golf course, but a great golf course. To be able to start the semester somewhere, hopefully, a little warmer will be a great way to get things going for the guys."
Tech will keep its annual tradition of hosting the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate at Sevierville Golf Club, the team's eighth year honoring the late, great, Hall of Fame coach with its event in Sevierville, Tenn. Teams will once again compete on the River Course, this year from Mar. 15-17.
"We'll move on to our tournament the very next week," Brown explained. "As always, we love going back to Sevierville with the staff there and our staff making the trip to help run things. The River Course presents a great challenge for our guys and we'll look to go in there and have quite a bit of success in our eighth try at winning that tournament."
A repeat from a season ago, the Golden Eagles will feature a trip to Spartanburg, S.C. for the Wofford Intercollegiate, Apr. 6-7. The field will battle for supremacy at the Country Club of Spartanburg.
"We went to Wofford last year for the first time, and what a great golf course that is," Brown remarked. "[Wofford head coach] Alex Hamilton does a spectacular job with that event. It's just an old-style country club with a lot of doglegs and a great opportunity for our guys to compete."
Fresh off its second tournament title in five years of competition at the Big Blue Intercollegiate, Tech will look to defend its crown at Tennessee State's annual event in Old Hickory, Tenn. As is the tradition, the tournament will take place at The Hermitage Golf Course, with play commencing on the President's Reserve course from Apr. 13-14.
"We love going to Tennessee State's event every year right before conference. We've had a lot of success there, having won twice, and now we'll head in as the defending champs. They've made some changes to President's Reserve, but I still think the guys will be highly competitive at that event. If all goes well, I believe we'll find ourselves in a position to win again."
Tech will wrap up the spring at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships from Apr. 26-29. The event will be held at the Fighting Joe Course at The Shoals, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, in Muscle Shoals, Ala. This year, however, will feature a new twist.
"I think our men's conference is extremely deep," Brown explained. "It's going to be highly competitive at the OVC Championships. This year, they've added the new wrinkle of match play. If everything goes right with the weather and we get all 54 holes of stroke play in, they are going to do the final day on Wednesday with the top-four teams seeded one through four. One will play four and two will play three in semifinal matches in the morning and the final match will take place in the afternoon.
"I believe there are five or six leagues now that are doing match play in their conference championship," Brown continued, "so we're very excited to do this now and see how things go. I know the guys are looking forward to it as well. We're just ecstatic to get the season going and see how we progress."
Photo by Thomas Corhern
