GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's golf team will open the fall portion of its 2024-2025 schedule when they make the short trip to Bristol for the King Invitational. The two-day, 36-hole event will be held at the Golf Club of Bristol.
The Pioneers, under the direction of third-year head coach Hunter Chandley, will be the defending team champions of the event as the Black & Orange led wire-to-wire while shooting a school-record eight-under par 552.
MEET THE PIONEERS
This year's 15-man roster includes nine returning lettermen from a team that finished eighth at the South Atlantic Conference Championship.
Senior Blake Williams (Lone Tree, Colo.) finished third on the team last year with his 73.08 stroke average and tied for the team-lead with his five top-20 finishes. Of those five performances, three were in the top-10 including a pair in the top-five. He finished fifth at the Walters State Classic and at the Hargett Memorial. He enters this year with a 73.86 career scoring average which is fourth in TU history while his 10 career sub-par rounds are listed ninth in school history.
Senior Liam Hermansson (Stockholm, Sweden) returns after logging a 73.17 stroke average in his six competitive rounds. He won his first collegiate medal at last fall's Bob Dibble Intercollegiate where he fired a career-best 205, which is the second-lowest 54-hole score in TU history. He also tied for 25th at the Limestone Fall Invitational. He has played in 19 events during his career where he has a 75.94 scoring average while posting six top-20 finishes.
Senior Liam van Deventer (Boksburg, South Africa) also returns as he appeared in seven events last year and carded a 74.45 stroke average. He finished in the top-10 on three times including twice in the top-five. He finished fourth at last year's King Invitational with a three-under par score of 137 including a final round 66. He finished runner-up at the Dibble Intercollegiate and tied for eighth place honors at the Limestone Fall Invitational. His 73.94 career stroke average is the fifth-lowest in program history while he is sixth with his 16 career sub-par rounds.
Senior Hunter Hartman (Greeneville, Tenn.) is back after playing in two tournaments last year and finished with a 76.40 scoring average. He finished 14th at the Dibble Intercollegiate and 35th at the Walters State Fall Classic.
Sophomore Marinus Jeebe (Forstinning, Germany) qualified for three events in his rookie season where he tallied a 76.25 average. He finished 18th at the Walters State Classic and 24th at the Dibble Intercollegiate.
Also seeing action in two tournaments last year are returning letterman Liam Colohan (Surrey, England) and Lawson Harkey (Crouse, N.C.). Colohan finished with a 77.00 scoring average as he tied for 15th at the Walters State Classic and 37th at the Dibble Intercollegiate. Harkey also had a 77.00 average finishing 30th at the Dibble Intercollegiate and 28th at Walters State Tournament.
Junior Ryland Chaney (Owensboro, Ky.) made his TU debut last fall at the Dibble Intercollegiate where he finished 53rd. Sophomore Dylan Side (Gray, Tenn.) also played his first collegiate golf at the Dibble where he also finished 53rd.
Redshirt freshman Cedrik Gresseth (Trondheim, Norway) joined the Pioneers last spring and is vying to make his collegiate debut this season. He was the 2021 winner of the Division I Norwegian Team Championship and finished third at the Danish Junior Games in 2022 and 2023.
The Pioneer roster will have four newcomers on it including junior Josiah Morris, sophomore Buster O'Callaghan and rookies Harrison Price, Gavin Sells and Hayden Shrewsbury.
Morris is new to the golf team but not Tusculum as he was a starting guard on last year's men's basketball team. He returns as TU's top three-point shooter this fall and will be a two-sport athlete as he adds golf to his repertoire.
O'Gallaghan, a native of Leatherhead, England, played last season at Keiser University in Florida where he logged a 75.20 stroke average while playing in four events. He finished in the top-10 on two occasions.
Price, a freshman from Winchester, England, accounted for an outstanding junior golf career overseas as he posted a 73.4 scoring average and earned Hampshire U18 County Team honors.
Sells is a local product who played his prep career at Greeneville High School where was the seventh-ranked player in the State of Tennessee and was listed in the top-500 junior golfers in the country.
Shrewsbury (Jonesborough, Tenn.) played locally at Daniel Boone High School where he was a TSSAA Region qualifier.
2024 FALL SCHEDULE
The Pioneers will play in four tournaments in all this fall. Following the King Invitational, Tusculum will be at the Bearcat Fall Classic (Sep. 30-Oct. 1) next week before hosting the Bob Dibble Intercollegiate (Oct. 7-8) which returns to Graysburg Hills Golf Course in Chuckey. TU will wrap up the fall slate on Oct. 21-22 at the Lenoir-Rhyne Fall Invitational in Hickory, North Carolina.
