GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The 2021-2022 men's golf season opens for the Tusculum Pioneers next week as they compete at the King University Invitational at the Country Club of Bristol, this coming Monday and Tuesday.
TU head coach Ross Cash returns eight lettermen including four of its five top golfers from last year's club which finished 11th at the South Atlantic Conference Men's Championship.
Tusculum will play a 10-tournament schedule which includes the 2022 South Atlantic Conference Championship, hosted by the Pioneers at Graysburg Hills Golf Club, Apr. 10-12.
Leading the charge for the Pioneers is sophomore Dominic Barron Holden. Holden earned All-SAC honorable mention recognition last spring as he carded a team-best 73.59 stroke average, which is the ninth-lowest in school history. He played in six events where he logged three top-20 finishes including twice in the top-10. Last year's team most valuable player posted five rounds of par or lower including a season-low 66 (-6) in the opening round of the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate.
Holden finished third at the Tusculum Invitational and carded a ninth-place showing at the Buccaneer Classic.
Sophomore Liam van Deventer finished second on last year's team with his 74.18 scoring average including 72.75 in his last three tournaments. He won the championship medal at the Tusculum Invitational, sparked by a season-best 67 (-5) in the opening round. The Boksburg, Gauteng, South Africa native also finished 18th at the Buccaneer Spring Classic and 35th at the SAC Championship.
Senior Nicholas Marchese (Bolton, Ontario, Canada) was third on last year's roster with his 75.64 stroke average in his 14 rounds. He recorded two top-20 finishes and one top-10 effort. He opened the abbreviated season with a sixth place finish at the Buccaneer Spring Classic. He also placed 15th at the Tusculum Invitational and 42nd at the SAC Championship. Earlier this summer, he earned an amateur invitation to play in the PGA Tour Mackenzie Investments Open in Montreal.
Senior Kyle Engelbert is one of the veteran leaders on the TU roster. He enters his fourth season in Greeneville with a 76.18 career stroke average in his 45 career rounds. He has posted 10 career finishes in the top-20 including four times in the top-10. The Fort Worth Texas product posted a 77.42 average last year in his four tournaments as he finished 15th at the Buccaneer Spring Classic. He earned team MVP honors in his freshman and sophomore seasons including his rookie campaign where he earned a spot on the 2019 SAC All-Tournament Team.
Cork, Ireland senior Mark Healy returns after playing in three tournaments last spring. He tied for 20th at the Tusculum Invitational and also competed at the Hargett Memorial and the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate. Two years ago, he qualified for all six events in a COVID-shortened season as he posted a 76.5 scoring average.
Senior Bennett Noe (Knoxville, Tenn.) has played in 49 career rounds where he has a 78.78 scoring average which includes six top-20 finishes and two top-10 showings. Last year, Noe posted an 80.13 average in three tournaments. He tied for 15th place at the Tusculum Invitational and 21st at the Buccaneer Spring Classic.
Greeneville senior Jordan Williams is also back and has played in five tournaments during his collegiate career including the 2021 Tusculum Invitational where he tied for 37th place. Sophomore Isak Holter (Trondheim, Norway) finished his rookie campaign with a 78.8 average in his two tournaments.
Seven newcomers have been added to the Tusculum program led by JUCO transfer Riley Brown. The Peoria, Arizona product earned NJCAA Division II All-America first team honors last year at Glendale Community College. He posted a 73.6 scoring average in his seven tournaments where he finished in the top-25 in all of them including three times in the top-10. His scoring average was ranked 13th in the country as he finished seventh at the NJCAA II National Championship and led the Gauchos to a third place finish as a team.
Liam Hermansson, a freshman from Stockholm, Sweden could make an impact with this year's Tusculum team as a rookie. He posted a 74.00 scoring average in his prep career while recording four runner-up performances. He has carded a career-low 67 on multiple occasions.
Junior Thomas Kollberg, a junior from Wimborne, England, comes to Tusculum after playing last season at Eastern Arizona College. He logged a 74.46 scoring average in his five tournaments which included four top-20 finishes. He finished runner-up at the NJCAA Division I-Region One Championship with a score of 69-72-77=218. He advanced to the NJCAA National Championship where he finished 20th with 76-76-68-73=293.
Freshman Fynn Hesenkaemper (Halle Westfalen, Germany) enjoyed a solid prep career in Germany where he ranked first at the Faldo Series in Berlin (2018) and was national champion with the North Rhine Westphalian squad (2018). Most recently, he finished third at the U18 German Championship in 2020.
Liam Colohan (Surrey, England) was a two-time team captain at Epsom College in England where he was a 2020-21 national finalist. He was a Team Surrey Regional finalist four time and a 2021 Team United Kingdom National Finalist.
Rookie Calum Schlichenmaier (Orlando, Fla.) helped his William R. Boone High School team to advance to the Florida State regionals.
Freshman Daxx Carr (Johnson City, Tenn.) was a member of the TSSAA District Championship team at University High School as he qualified for two TSSAA State Tournaments as an individual with the Buccaneers. He captured multiple SNEDS Tour Tournament titles and posted multiple top-four finishes on the Hurricane Golf Tour.
THE SCHEDULE
The Pioneers will compete in four tournaments this fall including the King Invitational (Sep. 27-28), Richard Rendleman Invitational (Oct. 4-5), Walters State (Oct. 11-12) and the Matt Dyas Invitational (Oct. 25-26).
Six events are on tap in the spring including the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate (Feb. 14-15), Saint Leo Invitational (Feb. 21-22), Bearcat Invitational (Mar. 7-8), Tusculum Invitational (Mar. 21-22), Tennessee River Rumble (Mar. 28-29) and the SAC Championship (Apr. 10-12) at Graysburg Hills.
