EL DORADO, Ark. – Postseason action begins for the University of South Alabama men's golf program on Sunday when the Sun Belt Conference Championship gets underway at the Mystic Creek Golf Club.

The event will feature 18 holes of competition over three consecutive days, with the top four teams at the end of three rounds advancing to match play on Wednesday; the semifinals will be contested in the morning on the last day of the tournament, with the winners meeting in the afternoon to claim the league's automatic berth to an NCAA Regional.

The Jaguars' lineup will feature Yannick Schütz, Jordan Plunkett, Jacob LeCroy, Mathias Lorentzen and Eli Mitchell, with Kyle Robinson available as an alternate.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Event (host): Sun Belt Conference Championship (Sun Belt Conference)
Dates: 4/25-28 (Sunday-Wednesday)
Format: 18 holes Sunday-Tuesday, match play Wednesday
Start times: 8:30 a.m. (CDT) start from split tees Sunday-Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. start on Wednesday
Course: Mystic Creek Golf Club (par 72, 7,293 yds)
Live scoring: http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=22547

THE FIELD (12)
Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Little Rock, Louisiana, ULM, South Alabama, UTA, Texas State, Troy

THE JAGUAR LINEUP
-Yannick Schütz (R-Sr., Friolzheim, Germany; 21 rds, 72.10 avg, 4 T20s, 67 low 18, 209 low 54, 12 rds =/- par)
-Jordan Plunkett (Jr., Sterrett, Ala; 21 rds, 73.24 avg, 2 T20, 68 low 18, 215 low 54, 8 rds =/- par)
-Jacob LeCroy (So., Anniston, Ala.; 15 rds, 74.73 avg, 2 T20s, 69 low 18, 213 low 54, 5 rds =/1 par)
-Mathias Lorentzen (Sr., Hvidovre, Denmark; 9 rds, 73.89 avg, 1 T20, 68 low 18, 217 low 54, 3 rds =/- par)
-Eli Mitchell (Fr., Meridian, Miss.; 18 rds, 74.72 avg, 70 low 18, 221 low 54, 5 rds =/- par)
-Kyle Robinson (Sr., Fayetteville, Ark.; 18 rds, 75.11 avg, 1 T20, 70 low 18, 214 low 54, 5 rds =/- par)

TEE SHOTS
-The Jaguars are looking for their first Sun Belt title since 2010, and the 11th in program history.
-Since match play was introduced to the championship format in 2016, South has qualified for the semifinals on two of four occasions.
-Lane Hulse was the last Jag to claim medalist honors after posting a 2-under-par 214 total and then sinking a birdie putt on the first playoff hole in 2013.
-This will mark the first occasion since 2000, when the event was conducted in Jonesboro, that the league championship will be contested in Arkansas; the Jaguars won titles in the state in both 1998 (Pine Bluff) and '99 (Jonesboro).
-Both Plunkett and Schütz posted top-25 finishes — tying for 15th and 25th place, respectively — the last time the championship was held in 2019.
-Schütz also tied for 17th individually the previous year to help USA finish fourth in stroke play to move on to the match-play semifinals.
-He enters the event ranked sixth in the Sun Belt in score vs. par, with Plunkett also among the top 25 in the league in the category.
-LeCroy comes into play having shot par or better in five of his last eight rounds after leading the Jaguars with a 3-under-par 213 54-hole total last time out at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic.
-All three of Lorentzen's appearances this season have come in the spring, with the senior recording at least one score at or below par at each tournament.
-Mitchell — the lone underclassman in the lineup this week — has posted a round at or under par at each of the last four events he has competed in dating back to the final tournament of the fall season.
-In his lone appearance at the Sun Belt Championship, Robinson carded a 2-under-par 70 in the final round of the 2019 event en route to a 217 three-day total.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Ben Hannan
On competing in a postseason event for the first time since 2019: "Everyone gets excited for postseason play, there is a different feel especially this year working in a Covid environment.  We are playing at a new venue so everything is different, but the guys are looking forward to competing."
On how the team has prepared for the championship: "We have had a couple of weeks since playing in Houston, so we've tried to stagger practice and playing.  We are going to a golf course that has severe green complexes that are built up, turtleback, fast and have tremendous slope; with that, we have focused on a lot of pitching and elevated shots.  We have also put a lot into wedge work as the par fives will demand precise distance control.  Other than that, we will need to make on-course decisions during the practice round and develop individual game plans."
On what the Jaguars need to do to have a chance to be successful this week: "Championship week is all about controlling emotions.  It's being disciplined enough to stay in the process and committed to the game plan no matter the score.  This is a hard golf course and it will demand absolute patience to be successful.  Our league is really good this year and very deep, so to have everyone contributing and fighting for every shot will be important for success just because of the difficulty of the golf course."

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.

—USA—