JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The last time coach Randy Wylie and the Carson-Newman men's golf team walked off the Sevierville Golf Club's course, the then newly-named coach and his players had just won some fancy hardware.
Just two weeks after being named men's golf coach on the banks of Mossy Creek, Wylie and the Eagles won the South Atlantic Conference Tournament at the Sevierville Golf Club.
But that was last season. All-SAC performer Jonathan Kim-Moss graduated.
Now, Wylie welcomes six newcomers to the Carson-Newman program, who will be participating in their first tournament this week at the Smokey Mountain Intercollegiate Invitational at the Sevierville Golf Club that the Eagles will be hosting.
"We have great memories of winning there. We won the conference championship last year that propelled us to the NCAA Tournament and we are looking forward to hopefully winning our own tournament to start the year on the same course," Wylie said.
Although six newcomers may be scattered throughout the Eagles' roster, three returners will see the starting line-up this week once again.
Juniors Nick Kennedy (London, Ontario, Canada) and Corey Bray (Caryville, Tenn.) as well as sophomore Dalton Reese (Warrenton, Ga.) will be seeing the course they know very well from last season.
"Dalton Reese, Nick Kennedy and Corey Bray all were on that championship team last years, starters. So, they have some really good experience there and Nick was on the all-tournament team and kind of propelled us to that victory by his good play so hopefully we will get some good leadership from Nick and that can at least put us in position to have a chance to win this week," Wylie said. "It's going to be tough competition but I think we have a good team and if Nick plays well, I think we will be in the hunt."
One of the newcomers will also be seeing the starting line-up this week. Andrew Hall (Knoxville, Tenn.) transferred to Carson-Newman from Walters State Community College. At Walters State, Hall saw plenty of personal and team success that will hopefully carry over to his new team.
"We have one really, really good player we brought in, Andrew Hall, who was a junior college All-American, was on a national championship junior college team.," Wylie said. "And Andrew will come in and play number one for us, so he is a real, real good addition to the team."
The Eagles begin the tournament Monday morning and will play two 18-hole rounds before finishing the tournament on Tuesday at the Sevierville Golf Club.
