WEST POINT, Miss. – As the University of South Alabama men's golf program heads into the final month of the regular season, it does so looking to turn around its fortunes.

After opening the spring campaign by finishing sixth at the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate, the Jaguars have been outside the top 10 in the team standings in their two most recent events.  The Old Waverly Collegiate Championship — which will be hosted by Mississippi State on Monday and Tuesday — is the first of two tournaments for the squad this month prior to the start of the Sun Belt Conference Championship.

"It's always good to be playing your best golf in April.  We are approaching that point trying to fine-tune our lineup and determine the student-athletes who will ultimately represent us at the conference championship," stated USA head coach Ben Hannan.  "We've had spurts of good play at different times, even in some of our recent events, where we have had five guys in the game.  We've played a lot of good golf, but we've simply had to count too many big numbers and in an aggregate game it can be hard.  For us it is about finding the right nucleus of guys who will compete hard for each other and the team in order for us to accomplish our goals."

The Jags' lineup for this week's tournament will include Peter Staalbo, Daniel Jansen, Jason Mendel, Matt Sheehan and Ally Purdy.

In three events this spring, Staalbo has been the team's top finisher while recording a 72.78 scoring average, three rounds of par or better and a pair of top-20 results.  That included posting USA's lowest score in each of the first two rounds last time out at the Linger Longer Invitational, as he would go on to finish with a 226 54-hole score.

That figure was one stroke better than Mendel, who paced the team on the final day of the event after carding a 74.  The sophomore has a 74.52 scoring average that includes four scores of par or lower.  Jansen enters play with a stroke average of 73.90, with the senior leading the team with a score of par or better in 10 of his 21 rounds on the season.

Purdy has a stroke average of 76.73 and Sheehan is averaging 77.81 shots per round coming into the tournament.  This will mark the second straight event that the latter has been in the Jaguar lineup, while the former is competing for the first time since the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate to open the spring campaign.

Last year the Jags placed 10th in a field of 15 teams at Old Waverly Collegiate Championship keyed by Tyler Klava's 5-under-par 211 total.  Jansen contributed a 73 in the opening round for USA, Mendel recorded an even-par 72 on the afternoon of the opening day and Sheehan posted a 73 over the last 18 holes that tied for best on the team in the final round.  The previous two seasons, the Jaguars finished tied for fifth and third in the team standings at the event.

"We did have qualifying following the Linger Longer Invitational so we have been playing, however, we've been spending a lot of time on the process — the individual routines, the commitment side of golf — and getting out of our own way," Hannan said.  "We haven't necessarily spent time preparing for the course because that will be dictated by the weather — it will play different depending on whether it is wet or dry, we'll know that when we get there — but aside from qualifying we have been focusing on simply playing the game and not making it harder than it has to be."

The field this week will include fellow Sun Belt members Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and Texas-Arlington.  Also competing will be Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Lipscomb, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, Mississippi, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Mississippi and West Virginia.

There will be a shotgun start to play at 8:30 a.m. (CDT) on both Monday and Tuesday, with 36 holes schedule for the first day and a single round on the second at the par-72, 7,088-yard Old Waverly Golf Club.  Live updates will be available at https://www.birdiefire.com/tournament/20394/ on both days of the tournament.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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