Talent-packed NCAA South/Southeast Regional Preview awaits Eagles
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The 21st-ranked Carson-Newman men’s golf team will have an opportunity to play the host site for the NCAA South/Southeast Regional course and test itself against the best teams in the country as the Eagles travel to Mission Inn Resort & Golf Club in Howie-in-the-Hills, Fla. for the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Preview hosted by Saint Leo’s.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The 21st-ranked Carson-Newman men's golf team will have an opportunity to play the host site for the NCAA South/Southeast Regional course and test itself against the best teams in the country as the Eagles travel to Mission Inn Resort & Golf Club in Howie-in-the-Hills, Fla. for the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Preview hosted by Saint Leo's.
Three of the top five teams in the nation and 13 teams that are either ranked or receiving votes, including C-N, will compete in the 18-team, 54-hole event in the Sunshine State. Top-ranked and host Saint Leo's Lions, second-ranked Chico State Wildcats and Nova Southeastern Sharks, who is ranked fourth, headline the talent-packed field.
"It is certainly a good field, but we played such a good schedule that we have a pretty experienced team but it will new for Grant Bodie who is a freshman that is going, so that will be a new experience for him," coach Randy Wylie said. "He's quite a ball striker and has a lot of talent and will handle the pressure of the situation. The other guys, this is normal for them. They are used to playing these kinds of fields against the best players and I think they'll be ready to accept that this week."
The five Eagles traveling to the Sunshine State are freshmen Grant Bodie (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Jake Headrick (Maryville, Tenn.), junior Dalton Reese (Warrenton, Ga.) and seniors Jace Devault (Bluff City, Tenn.) and Andrew Hall (Knoxville, Tenn.). All five players competed at the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate two weeks ago.
At the Spring Kickoff, Carson-Newman finished second to Armstrong State by four strokes. Reese was named to the All-Tournament team after finishing third, which included the second-lowest round in the tournament with a second round 65. Headrick finished tied for sixth in his best tournament in the Orange and Blue and complied three rounds that were played at even or below-par. In his collegiate debut, Bodie tied for 28th and shot his first-career below-par round.
This season, Hall is averaging 70.6 strokes per round but has not had a round at even or below-par since the first round of the McDonough Cup that capped the fall season in October. Devault is averaging a score of 73.8 but is coming off a 24-over 237 showing at the Spring Kickoff. The senior had a stretch of four events where his highest score total was two-over; he had tallied two even-par totals and a six-under 210 at the University of North Georgia Fall Invitational.
Joining the Eagles, Lions, Wildcats and Sharks at the Regional Preview as the ranked teams in the field are: sixth-ranked Florida Southern, No. 7 Lynn, 13th-ranked Lee, No. 15 North Alabama, 16th-ranked Georgia Southwestern and No. 22 Florida Tech. Valdosta State, Delta State and Limestone will all compete and receiving votes. The remaining teams set to compete in Howie-in-the-Hills are: Erskine, Georgia College, Clayton State, Wingate and Shorter.
The Southeast Region is represented by seven teams spread out by three conferences. Carson-Newman and Wingate are the two lone South Atlantic Conference representatives in the field while the Peach Belt Conference has three teams competing, Georgia Southwestern, Georgia College and Clayton State, and Conference Carolinas has two teams in the event with Erskine and Limestone.
The South Region is comprised of two conferences with five teams from each making the field. The Gulf South Conference is represented by Valdosta State, North Alabama, Lee, Delta State and Shorter, while Nova Southeastern, Lynn, Florida Southern, Florida Tech and Saint Leo's are the five teams from the Sunshine State Conference. Chico State is from the California Collegiate Athletic Association and is in the West Region.
"I think we are pretty seasoned now," coach Randy Wylie said. "At the beginning of the fall, I was a little more concerned about that. We had a really tough fall schedule, so I was a little concerned about how the guys would react against the best teams; they handled it really well. Now, they should be more confident and I'm certainly more confident in them as we go forward, because of the tough schedule we played in the fall."
Surrounded by an abundance of natural Florida beauty, the El Campeón 18-hole championship course was designed by Chicago-based course architect, George O'Neil and built in 1917 - with further enhancements in 1926 by Charles E. Clarke of Troon, Scotland. El Campeón is one of the South's oldest golf courses and blends unusual Central Florida elevation changes of more than 85 feet with features of traditional golf design, including spectacular rolling fairways and undulating greens. El Campeón plays 7,015 yards and is scored as a par-72.
"The whole reason to go down for this event is to get some experience on that golf course," Wylie said. "We have three big goals: win the conference championship, go to the NCAA Regional, but we just don't want to go, we want to go to the NCAA Regional and make the finals. To get a good field and know how the course plays and have a real understanding of it and having seen competition pins, that should really help us as we pursue those roles.
The Eagles open the NCAA South/Southeast Region Preview on Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. with a shotgun start as the the first 18 of the 36 holes scheduled for the day will be played. The final round will begin on Tuesday morning with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. Full results and a recap of each day's events will be available on cneagles.com.
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