JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – New faces litter the Carson-Newman men's golf roster for the 2015-16 season as the Eagles embark on a new season with the Kiawah Island Invitational in Kiawah Island, S.C. hosted by USC-Aiken.
Six freshmen are on the roster for their first season at Mossy Creek with two of the six making their collegiate debuts at the Kiawah Island Invitational.
"The freshmen that we have in are pretty experienced freshmen. They've played a lot of men's events and competed a lot in the summer in men's events. I just think they are ready mentally," coach Randy Wylie said. "They are ahead of most freshmen. Our freshmen class is really mature and there are several of them I expect to be able to contribute throughout the year."
Freshmen Jake Headrick (Maryville, Tenn.) and Alex Hutson (Newport, Tenn.) join Andrew Hall (Knoxville, Tenn.), Jace Devault (Bluff City, Tenn.) and Nicklaus Kennedy (London, Ontario, Canada) to form the five-player squad for coach Randy Wylie's squad.
Hall is coming off a second-team All-South Atlantic Conference and a season where he averaged 73.5 strokes per round. Kennedy won the North Georgia Fall Invitational in 2014 averaged 75.6 strokes per round. DeVault did not compete for the Eagles last season.
"The guys are just ready to go. I think we've got a real solid team this year so we've excited to see how we stack up against the best teams in the country," Wylie said.
Carson-Newman opens the season at the Kiawah Island Invitational hosted by USC-Aiken at Osprey Point Golf Club on September 14th and 15th. Last season, the Eagles played in the same event on Kiawah Island's Cougar Point Golf Course and finished 16th after the second round of play was cancelled due to rain. The 6,545-yard, par-72 Osprey Point Golf Club opened in 2010. C-N has competed in the Kiawah Island Invitational each of the past five seasons with the best finish coming with a fifth-place showing in 2011.
Six teams from the 2014 NCAA Tournament will participate in the Kiawah Island Invitational, including host Aiken who placed sixth in final standings. SAC foes Tusculum, Lincoln Memorial, Newberry, Coker and Brevard are members of 17-team field.
"We're so ready to play. You're qualifying against your own teammates and you're playing your home courses and you know you have Kiawah coming up, one of the premier resort areas in the country," Wylie said "We aren't going to back down from any of those teams. I think we can compete and we are going to find out early in the year because our first two tournaments, we are literally playing the best teams in the country. I think my guys can do it."
The Kiawah Island Invitational tees off Monday morning with the first 18 holes of the 36-hole tournament and full results will be available on cneagles.com following the round.
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