HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The University of South Alabama men's golf team opens the final month of the regular season Monday when it participates in the Jerry Weeks Match Play hosted by Southern Mississippi.
It's the third consecutive years the Jaguars will compete at the event along with the Eagles, fellow Sun Belt Conference member Louisiana and Louisiana Tech. The semifinals in the morning will feature the Sun Belt and Conference USA members paired against each other, with the winners and losers meeting in the consolation and championship matches after lunch.
Playing for South in the one-day competition will be Jacob Hatter, Rasmus Karlsson, Jordan Plunkett, Yannick Schütz and Peter Staalbo. The Jags have won the championship each of the first two years since the event's inception in 2017.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Event (host): Jerry Weeks Match Play (Southern Mississippi)
Date: 4/1 (Monday)
Start times: 8 a.m. (CDT) start for the semifinals, 12:30 p.m. start for the consolation/championship
Course: Hattiesburg Country Club (par 72, 6,902 yds)
Live scoring: n/a
THE FIELD (4)
Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, South Alabama, Southern Mississippi
THE JAGUAR LINEUP
-Jacob Hatter (Fr., Alpharetta, Ga.; 8 rds, 75.50 avg, 69 low 18, 220 low 54, 1 rd =/- par)
-Rasmus Karlsson (Jr., Fiskars, Finland; 19 rds, 73.32 avg, 2 T20s, 66 low 18, 212 low 54, 5 rds =/- par)
-Jordan Plunkett (Fr., Sterrett, Ala.; 19 rds, 74.00 avg, 69 low 18, 211 low 54, 9 rds =/- par)
-Yannick Schütz (Jr., Friolzheim, Germany; 19 rds, 72.79 avg, 4 T20s, 69 low 18, 216 low 54, 10 rds =/- par)
-Peter Staalbo (Sr., Lejre, Denmark; 16 rds, 74.31 avg, 2 T20s, 69 low 18, 220 low 54, 6 rds =/- par)
TEE SHOTS
-The Jaguars have won the title at the event — previously referred to as the Southern Collegiate Match Play — in each of the first two years of the competition.
-Karlsson's five career victories in match play are most on the team.
-That included going 3-0 last spring, with his 1 up defeat of ULL's Bjorn Gudjonsson sending the Jags to the final at last year's event.
-At the inaugural event in 2017, Staalbo earned a 4 & 2 victory over John Lewis Sams to complete South's 3-2, come-from-behind win over Louisiana Tech in the championship match.
-Schütz picked up his first match play win as a Jag last year when he beat the Ragin's Cajuns' Peter Hinnant 4 & 3 to earn the team's initial point in the semifinals.
-This will mark the first time in three years that USA will compete at the tournament without the services of Jason Mendel, who went 4-0 in the first two editions of the event before graduating last spring.
THEY SAID IT
Head coach Ben Hannan
On preparing for the competition: "Following Spring Break, we have been trying to organize practice in more of a match play set up with intrasquad competitions during practice and play days in preparation for this coming week."
On what the Jaguars need to do to win the event: "We will be playing Louisiana from our league in the morning round, and the winner will play one of the teams from Conference USA. It's great preparation for the conference tournament in a few weeks as it will mirror the 36-hole competition during the match play bracket of the final day. To be successful this week we need to focus on the situation in front of us — in this case the opponent in front of us — because match play is different than stroke play."
On if winning the tournament the last two years gives the team confidence coming into play: "It's match play, so anything can happen on any given day. These are competitive, well-coached programs, so it will come down to getting good draws which we won't know until the pairings party the night before. If we can draw good match-ups then that will certainly give us a good opportunity to repeat for the third year in a row."
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. 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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