Golf teams travel to Florida for Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate next week

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's and women's golf teams will open the spring portion of their schedules next week at the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate in St. Augustine, Florida.

Both teams are scheduled to compete in five regular season tournaments this spring and culminating with the South Atlantic Conference Championships in April.

MEN'S SPRING PREVIEW

The Pioneers are looking to build upon the fall campaign which saw them finish runner-up in three of their four events.

Junior Jeffery Perez led the Pioneers with his 73.7 scoring average while playing in all four tournaments. Perez posted a career-best seven-under par 137 to win the Mars Hill Invitational. He carded a final round 65 to claim is first collegiate medal.  He also finished third at the King Invitational with 71-68=139 and placed 14^th at the Walters State Fall Classic.

Sophomore Kyle Engelbert posted a 74.0 stroke average in his four events including three times in the top-20 including a fourth-place finish at the Walters State Fall Classic.

TU newcomer Mark Healy also has a 74.0 scoring average after his four fall tournaments as he placed in the top-25 in all of them including a season-best fourth-place showing at the King Invitational with 70-70=140.

Sophomore Noah Jones finished the fall with a 74.6 average as he finished in the top-20 twice including a seventh place finish at the Walters State Fall Classic and tied for 13^th at the Mars Hill Invitational.

Sophomore Bennett Noe also appeared in four tournaments and logged a 75.4 scoring average. Noe finished in the top-10 in the first two tournaments at the MHU Invitational (T9th) and the King Invitational (T6th) which included a final round 68.

Senior Matt DiBella played in one event as he finished sixth at the Walters State Classic with 72-75=147.  Liam Sweeney qualified for two tournaments to post a 76.0 average, while John Bennett (82.0) and Hunter Chandley (76.5) and Marko Jokic (77.8) also saw action for the Pioneers in the fall.

Sophomore Nicholas Marchese will be seeing his first action for the Pioneers after playing the Fall 2018 campaign at NCAA Division Palm Beach Atlantic University where he was ranked 28^th in the nation with his 71.19 scoring average for the Sailfish.

MEN'S SPRING SCHEDULE

The Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate is being held at St. Johns Country Club and hosted by Lincoln Memorial University.  TU will be looking to improve upon its 17^th place performance from a year ago where the Pioneers shot a 54-hole total 967. TU's best finish in this event came in the 2014 tournament where Tusculum finish third with a team total 878.

The Pioneers will be at the Richard Rendleman Invitational on Mar. 2-3 in Salisbury, North Carolina before returning to Tennessee for the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate (Mar. 15-17) in Sevierville.

The Pioneers will host the 27^th annual Tusculum Invitational on Mar. 23-24 at Link Hills Country Club and will be held in conjunction with the TU women's spring tournament.  The Pioneers are the defending champions, winning by eight shots last spring with a two-round total 583. TU has won its spring tournament in four of the last five seasons and 10 times overall.

Tusculum will close out the spring season at the Tennessee River Rumble in Loudon at Wind River Golf Club.  TU placed 12^th last year with 607.

The 2020 SAC Championship will be conducted Apr. 19-21 and held at Woodlake Country Club in Tazewell, Tennessee.  The winner of the tournament earns the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament.  Tusculum captured its lone SAC Championship in 2015 and have finished runner-up in the event on three occasions.

The NCAA Super Regional will be held at Germantown Country Club in Germantown, Tennessee from May 4-6. The NCAA Division II National Championship will be held at St. Albans Country Club in St. Albans, Missouri (May 12-16).

WOMEN'S SPRING PREVIEW

The Tusculum women's golf team enjoyed a solid fall season where the Pioneers finished fifth or better in all four tournaments including first place honors at the Mars Hill Invitational. TU also placed third at the King Invitational and the Myrtle Beach Intercollegiate and fifth at the Patsy Rendleman Invitational.

Senior transfer Jennifer Keim made an immediate impact for the Pioneers in the fall, leading the team with her 74.5 stroke average. She accounted for back-to-back runner-up finishes at the MHU Invitational and King Invitational and tied for third at Myrtle Beach.  All eight of her competitive rounds were in the 70s including and even par 72 in the final round of the MHU Invite.

Sophomore Olivia Cunningham is second on the team in stroke average at 78.3 with her best showing coming at Myrtle Beach, tying for 20^th and followed with a 23^rd place finish at the Rendleman which included a final round 74.

TU newcomer Yen Xuan Ong was third on the team with her 78.8 average as she finished in the top-20 in all four events including a fourth place tie in her TU debut at the Mars Hill Invitational. Her two-day score of 74-77=151 was her lowest tournament score of the fall at the Rendleman where she tied for 17^th.

Also new to the program in the fall is Mesa Community College transfer Taylor Gransen.  Gransen qualified for all four tournaments with an 80.6 scoring average.  She tied for fourth place at the MHU Invitational with 76-79=155 in her TU debut.

Junior Meredith Barton played in the season opener at Mars Hill where she tied for 21^st place and finished with an 88.5 average. Junior Mackenzie Butler played in two events and logged a 90.8 average as she finished 17^th at the MHU Invite and recorded a hole-in-one at the King Invitational.

The Pioneers have three newcomers on the roster this spring as junior Hannah Brown is slated to compete for playing time in the TU starting five.  She logged an 88.82 average last year at Mesa Community College where she played in 10 events including the NJCAA National Championship.

Nilubol Panno is also on the roster coming to Tusculum from Phuket, Thailand. She finished first at the Faldo Series Thailand Championship and also won the Hurricane Junior Tour Open in Illinois last year.

WOMEN'S SPRING SCHEDULE

The Pioneers will be appearing in its second Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate event in as many years. TU shot 641 and finished 10^th at last season's tournament in St. Augustine.

Tusculum will also be competing at the Low Country Invitational in Bluffton, South Carolina on Mar. 2-3 and will be looking to improve on last year's 11^th place showing.

The Barton Invitational (Mar. 9-10) has moved to Wilson, North Carolina after being held in Hilton Head Island. The Pioneers logged a sixth-place finish with a two-round tally 631.

On Mar. 15-17, Tusculum will play in the Nichols Intercollegiate in Sevierville as the Pioneers return to the Sevierville Golf Club for the first time since it hosted the 2015 SAC Championship.

Tusculum hosts the 23^rd annual Agnes McAmis Memorial, Mar. 23-24 in conjunction with the Tusculum Men's Invitational at Link Hills. The Pioneers finished tied for first place at last year's event and TU will be in quest of winning its spring tournament for an eighth time.

The SAC Women's Golf Championship will also be held at Woodlake Golf Club in Tazewell, Apr. 5-6, a week prior to the men's event.  The winner of this year's championship will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament in May.  Tusculum has claimed the SAC Championship on two occasions (2000, 2001) and has accounted for a pair of runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2017.

The NCAA Division II South Regional will be held May 4-6 at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-In-The-Hills, Florida. The NCAA II Women's National Championship will be held May 13-16 in St. Albans, Missouri.

Tusculum Men's Golf Spring Schedule

Tusculum Women's Golf Spring Schedule