FRANKLIN, Tenn. – The University of South Alabama men’s golf team is set to begin a challenging month-long stretch Friday, but it will do so with a lineup that has the maturity to respond to the test.
Three of the five individuals who will open play Friday at Vanderbilt’s Mason Rudolph Championship — Michael Garretson, Tyler Klava and Lane Hulse — participated in all 30 rounds for the Jaguars a year ago, with the trio joined by redshirt junior Blake Kelley and senior Tyler Brown.
“The guys had another competitive qualifier, and it led to a little bit of a lineup change this week,” head coach Ben Hannan commented. “Blake — who is coming off a medical redshirt year — gets to play in his first collegiate competition in awhile, I know he is ready and excited to get going. With Blake, Lane, Tyler [Klava] and Michael, we have a group with a lot of experience, and though Tyler Brown hasn’t played with us a lot he has been in many competitive tournaments.
“This is an older, seasoned group, which should ease any anxiety they have heading in, especially for those individuals who will be making their season debut.”
Parker Jones will also be competing in the tournament for the Jaguars as an individual.
Garretson and Klava both posted top-10 finishes at the season-opening Sam Hall Intercollegiate, which was hosted by Southern Mississippi Sept. 10-11. The former carded a career-low 7-under-par 206 54-hole score to finish second among the 87 individuals in the field, highlighted by a 4-under-par 67 in the second round that was the best 18-hole figure of the sophomore’s career. The latter opened the event with scores of 70 and 68, tying for eighth place after finishing with a 2-under-par 211 three-round total; it was his sixth top-20 performance since the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign.
Brown — who was playing in his first event for the Jaguars last time out — fired a 3-under-par 68 on the last day to move up to a tie for 24th with a 216 score over 54 holes, with Jones also recording a career-low 68 in the final round en route to posting a 223 total.
Their efforts helped USA card a 2-under-par 850 team score for a third-place finish among the 15 schools competing.
Prior to suffering a season-ending injury last winter, Kelley was ranked second in the Sun Belt Conference with a 72.30 stroke average. He opened last fall by sharing medalist honors at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate, where his career-low 64 in the second round led to a 9-under-par 204 total, ending October with another top-25 finish at the David Toms Intercollegiate hosted by Louisiana State.
Hulse, a junior, entered this year with a 74.59 career scoring average, and his eight rounds of par or lower last season was the second-highest total on the squad. He had five top-20 finishes last season highlighted by a tie for 10th at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate, and on three occasions Hulse carded a 54-hole total at or below par.
This year’s Mason Rudolph Championship — which will be contested at the par-71, 7,100-yard Vanderbilt Legends Club South Course — features three rounds in three days, with play starting from the first and 10th tees on Friday and Saturday at 8 a.m. The final round will tee off from Nos. 1 and 10 at 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
Live scoring for the tournament will be available at www.golfstat.com.
USA will begin the opening 18 holes Friday on No. 1 at 9:30 a.m.
Arkansas State, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Rice all participated with the Jags in the Sam Hall Intercollegiate earlier this month. Also in the field this weekend will be Charleston, Davidson, East Tennessee State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Middle Tennessee, Oklahoma, Tennessee Tech and Virginia. Including USA, nine of the 15 teams competing ended the 2011-12 season among the final Golfweek/Sagarin top 100.
“This starts a tough swing for us — one that will be demanding and competitive — with our next three events hosted by Vanderbilt, LSU and Alabama,” Hannan said. “It’s early in the year, but many of the teams we will see in these fields will participate in NCAA postseason play.
“For us, it is about individually playing to our ability each competitive round. If we maximize our talent, there is no question with the scores the guys have shot in our qualifiers and throughout the summer that we can compete with anybody. That will be the objective as we set up our game plan for the weekend.”
Following the Mason Rudolph Championship, the Jags will take part in the David Toms Intercollegiate and Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate the first half of October.
It’s the fifth occasion in the last six seasons — USA was not part of the field last fall — that the Jaguars will take part in the event. They have recorded three top-10 finishes at the tournament, with their best performance a third-place effort in 2007. Jack Hiluta posted the top individual effort by a Jag in the championship that fall, placing second after a 3-under-par 68 in the only round of the rain-shortened event.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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