WEST POINT, Miss. – With postseason action less than a month away, the University of South Alabama men's golf program will take part in its final stroke-play event of the regular season when action begins Monday at Mississippi State's Old Waverly Collegiate Championship.

"We have another good chance to prove where we are as a team right now, it's a solid field and an opportunity to play against some good competition and see where we stack up," Jaguar head coach Alex Hamilton said.  "Hopefully we can put together a full tournament, we haven't been able to do that yet this year.  I know the guys are working hard trying to get it, but we have to step to the plate and do our job."

Rasmus Karlsson leads the Jags coming into the tournament with a 73.28 scoring average and five top-20 finishes, including a tie for 12th place in the individual standings last time out at UNC-Wilmington's Seahawk Intercollegiate.  The freshman has posted two other top-10 results this spring, tying for third at the USA Individual Tournament in February before following up with a tie for sixth at the Tiger Invitational hosted by Auburn.

Peter Staalbo has a 73.82 stroke average entering the event, with his performance at UNCW — a tie for 22nd individually — his best of the spring campaign.  He is tied for second on the squad with seven rounds at or below par as well as with four top-20 finishes.

Brooks Rabren and Jason Mendel are carrying 74.58 and 74.59 scoring averages, respectively, and both have placed among the top 20 in the individual standings on multiple occasions this season.  The latter has shot par or better nine times with six of those rounds coming in the spring, while the former was South's top finisher in each of his first two appearances this season.  Yannick Schütz, who has a 75.67 stroke average over 12 rounds his first year at the collegiate level, will be making his first appearance in the Jag lineup since the final tournament of the fall campaign, the Steelwood Collegiate Invitational.

"We are dealing with some injuries, it looks like Sylas [Elliott] will be out the rest of the year and Stephen [Wall] has an issue as well," said Hamilton.  "We're a little bit hobbled right now, but we have five guys going to Mississippi State who hopefully will step up and play well.  After this we have a match play tournament that will hopefully get us ready for that part of the Sun Belt Conference Championship, it will be a good test for our guys with three good schools we will face that day; we will keep working from there."

Play at the par-72, 7,088-yard Old Waverly Golf Club is set to begin with an 8:30 a.m. (CDT) shotgun start to 36 holes Monday, with the final round scheduled for Tuesday.  The highest-rated school in the field in this week's Golfstat rankings is Mississippi — which stands 24th — with Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, Memphis, Rice, South Florida, Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi competing along with USA and MSU.

This will mark the fifth consecutive year that the Jaguars are taking part in the tournament.  USA finished third in a field of 14 schools in its first appearance, and a year later added another top-five result.  Last spring, Staalbo tied for third out of 84 individuals with a 2-under-par 214 54-hole score, and Mendel placed among the top 30 after posting a 224 two-day total that was second-best on the squad.

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).

Join the Birdie Club — the men's golf specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Birdie Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's golf program. For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/birdieclub.

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