JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – With their first tournament of the season in the books, the 21st ranked Carson-Newman men's golf team will travel to Orlando, Florida for the National Preview at ReUnion, which is being held at the ReUnion Golf Club.
"There are going to be 18 teams there and it's basically the 18 best teams in the country," Golf Coach Randy Wylie said. "It's going to be another really tough one. We've started with our two toughest tournaments of the year until the postseason. A top five [finish] would be terrific. Every tournament you go to you want to win, but a top five would be a great step."
Coach Wylie has tabbed Tom Forster (Oundle, England), Dalton Reese (Warrenton, Ga.), Jake Headrick (Maryville, Tenn.), Will Hurt (Powell, Tenn.) and Fintan McKenna (Westhill, UK) for the tournament. Hurt is the only one of the five who did not play in the team's first event of the fall, the St. Leo Invitational, where the team finished fifth.
Forster, who was playing in his first collegiate event, put up his team's best score, as his -3, 213 was good enough for seventh place in a tournament consisting of nearly 80 student-athletes. Reese, a first-team All-SAC selection last season and one of the squad's seniors, was only one stroke behind his teammate, shooting a -2 to tie for eighth, his sixth career top 10 finish.
Headrick entered the fall off a season in which he was named honorable mention All-SAC and got off to a solid start, finishing at even par with a stroke average of 72 at the invitational. He tied with Forster for the best round on the team when he shot a 69 in round one.
The St. Leo Invitational also marked the first C-N event for McKenna, who posted his best score in round two, with a 75. He'll be looking to improve upon a 63rd place finish when the team tees off in Orlando.
This will be the first time Hurt hits the links this fall and just the second tournament he's played in during his time as an Eagle. Hurt participated in one contest last season, the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate and finished in 74th place, his best 18 holes being a six-over 78 he shot in round two.
"We're going to have to play really well" said Wylie. "We've got two freshman and two sophomores, so we're probably the youngest team in the field. Hopefully this will be a great learning experience. If we can grow, we can be back at ReUnion in May, for the national championship, which is our ultimate goal."
The National Preview is a 54-hole event that will begin on Monday with two rounds of 18 before concluding with the final 18 holes on Tuesday. A write-up of the action on both days will be posted on cneagles.com.
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