VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's golf team will face what could arguably be its toughest stretch of the season this week with two tournaments hosted by Southeastern Conference schools on the upcoming schedule.
The Jaguars will first compete at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate — Alabama's annual fall event — on Monday and Tuesday, then head to LSU's David Toms Intercollegiate for 54 holes on Saturday and Sunday.
"This is a good stretch for us. Travelling to Alabama's and LSU's home events are great experiences for our guys," stated South head coach Alex Hamilton. "Our expectations are built more on what we can control, which is our own game; we need to get better at that. We need to continue to work on improving ourselves and let the results fall where they may. Golf is a sport where you don't play the opposing team, you play the course, so if we can do a better job of playing the golf course then our results will show that."
Play at the par-70, 7,209-yard Old Overton Country Club will get underway at 7:30 a.m. (CDT) Monday, with 36 holes scheduled on the first day of the tournament. The Jaguars will begin on No. 10 at 8:20 a.m., with live scoring available for both rounds at www.golftstat.com.
For the Jags, the quartet of Peter Staalbo, Sylas Elliott, Rasmus Karlsson and Yannick Schütz will be in the lineup for the third time in as many outings this fall. They will be joined by Jason Mendel, who made his season debut last time out at the Bridgestone Match Play.
Staalbo leads the squad with a 72.40 scoring average, which includes three of five rounds at or below par. After closing with a career-low 6-under-par 66 on the last day of The Invitational at The Ocean Course to start the year, he carded a 1-under-par 71 over the final 18 holes of stroke play at the match-play event.
Elliott's stroke average is 73.60 after carding scores of 73 and 74 to place 10th in the individual stroke-play standings at the Bridgestone tournament. He also had a 69 in the final round at Kiawah Island, tying for the second-best 18-hole score of the day.
Karlsson paced USA at the Bridgestone Match Play, using a career-best 1-under-par 71 to post a 145 two-round total and end up in a tie for sixth place while improving his season average to 74.80. Schütz has a 75.80 stroke average this fall that included an even-par 72 in his collegiate debut at The Invitational at The Ocean Course, and Mendel recorded a 159 two-round score at the Jaguars' most recent event.
"We evaluated how the first two events went, since they were back-to-back there was a quick turnaround there," Hamilton said. "It gave us an opportunity to evaluate and improve, we tried to do as much individual work as we could to get each student-athlete focusing on what they needed to do to get better. Hopefully we will see the results of that effort this week."
The JPNI field includes 12 teams, highlighted by six — Alabama, Alabama-Birmingham, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor and Florida State — that advanced to the 2016 NCAA Championship. Michigan and Nevada-Las Vegas, both of whom participated in an NCAA Regional in the spring, will compete as well, with Charlotte, Mississippi State and Texas-San Antonio also in the event with the Jags.
"It might be the best field we see this year," said Hamilton. "We have a couple of other events in the spring that always have good fields as well, but this is a real solid one we will see at Alabama. This will be a great barometer to find out where we are right now with our games. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I think the guys are too.
"It's a wonderful golf course, and Jerry Pate has done so much for the game of golf. We get to go up there and represent South Alabama, and we're going to do our best and hopefully knock some good programs off."
South last participated in the tournament in October 2012, coming in eighth out of 12 teams in the team standings, while in the fall of 2010 the Jaguars posted a fourth-place finish.
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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