TAMPA, Fla. – After an eventful 2015-16 campaign that saw them rise as high as 15th in the national rankings and make a trip to the South/Southeast Regional of the NCAA Men's Golf Championships, the Carson-Newman men's golf team is prepared to start their 2016-17 season at the St. Leo Invitational in Tampa, Florida.
Coach Randy Wylie has a different group of competitors this season, as six players graduated after last year, but he still has high expectations.
"We're extremely excited to get the season started," he said. "We're beginning the year at St. Leo in a tournament hosted by the defending national champions. We've got three freshman in the lineup and I'm excited to see how they respond to the challenge. We're going to rely heavily on the leadership of Dalton Reese (Warrenton, Ga.) and Jake Headrick (Maryville, Tenn.), two of our experienced returnees.
The Eagles roster for the tournament consists of Reese, Thomas Forster (Oundle, England), Headrick, Brady Childers (Granite Falls, N.C.) and Fintan McKenna (Westhill, United Kingdom). Grant Bodie will also compete as an individual, meaning he will still be representing Carson-Newman and his statistics will be official, but his stats won't be counted towards the team score.
Reese, who was the low qualifier for the Eagles, finished last season as an All-SAC first-team selection and won the Tennessee River Rumble Intercollegiate in April. The senior enters this event with five top-10 finishes to his credit in his C-N career.
Thomas Forster is one of the three freshman on coach Wylie's roster for the tournament. He joins the Carson-Newman golf team off a career at Prince Williams School that saw him qualify twice for national finals, finishing fifth in both times.
Headrick, who's a sophomore, was honorable mention All-SAC as a freshman and was a member of the All-SAC men's golf championship first-team. Headrick finished under par in two tournaments during the 2015-16 season, including the 2016 Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate, where he placed sixth. Headrick's highest finish came in the SAC championship, when he came in at fifth.
Freshmen Childers and McKenna earned C-N's final two sports in the invitiational. Childers was an All-Conference selection all four years he was in high school. McKenna holds the course record at the Royal Burgess Golf Club, the oldest golf club in the world.
This is the second straight year the Eagles are playing in the St. Leo Invitational. In 2015, they finished 7th as senior Andrew Hall set a SAC record for 54 holes, shooting a 204. Headrick finished 32nd in the event, while Reese tied for 38th.
The invitational begins with 36 holes on Monday and that's followed by the final 18 on Tuesday. Recaps of the action on both days will be posted on cneagles.com.
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