Raiders face 16-team field at NC State

RALEIGH, NC - In the final tournament of the spring prior to the Sun Belt Conference Championships, the Middle Tennessee men’s golf team will be in Raleigh, NC on Saturday and Sunday for a 36-hole shootout that could go a long way in determining who will represent the Blue Raiders in both the SBC and the NCAA Regionals in the next month.

After playing three consecutive 54-hole tournaments, including a two-day trip to Memphis on Monday and Tuesday, the Blue Raider golfers will play 18 holes each day (Saturday and Sunday) on the Arnold Palmer-designed Lonnie Poole course in Raleigh. It is another long (7,358-yards), par 72 course that will challenge each team.

Coach Whit Turnbow, while disappointed in his team’s 4th place finish at Memphis, didn’t lose sight of the big picture. “Any time that we do not play our best, and can still log Top Five finishes and can be competitive, that’s a good thing. But, again, if we are going to compete in the post season, we are going to have to play better than we are playing now, top to bottom.

“We’ve got to make fewer mistakes if we are really going to make some noise in the post season. But it’s also encouraging that we still haven’t played our best yet, but are still competitive, and play in the last groups (teeing off) in these events, and have a shot to win. We’ve just got to play better.”

Despite not having enough time for challenge matches in practice this week, Turnbow did make one change in the lineup for NC State. Joining Hunter Green, Brad Simons, Brett Patterson and Jordan Jennings will be red-shirt freshman Andrew Cho.

“We’ll have plenty of challenge matches when we get back from North Carolina,” promised Turnbow.

Green, a two-time Player of the Week in Sun Belt Conference honors this spring, leads the team with a ranking as the 68th best player in all of collegiate golf. He is also the top ranked golfer in the field this weekend.

The Blue Raiders are young, with only Green and Simons as seniors. Patterson and Jordon are sophomores, while Cho is a freshman.

This will be Middle Tennessee’s first time to play in Raleigh, and most of the teams will be new opponents, compared to recent tournaments where many of the same teams competed.

Seventeen teams will tee off on Saturday, with East Carolina, Middle Tennessee, Lamar and home-standing NC State as the favorites. ECU is ranked 35th by GolfWeek.com, Middle Tennessee is 46th, Lamar 52nd and the Wolfpack is 64th.

Several teams that the Blue Raiders have rarely, if ever, opposed include Army, Navy, Binghamton, Drexel, Francis Marion, Connecticut, and Valparaiso. Turnbow could not recall the Blue Raiders ever playing either of the service academies. Sun Belt foes Troy and Louisiana-Monroe are also in the field.

The Blue Raider rounds at NC State may be followed on GolfStat.com with live scoring hole-by-hole. GoBlueRaiders.com will have daily updates as well.

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