JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Days after a seventh-place finish at the Bearcat Classic, Carson-Newman turns its attention to an event that has come with four-consecutive top-five finishes as it heads to the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate at the Sevierville Golf Club's River Course.
The Eagles made a three-spot move up the leaderboard from the first to final rounds with a 14-over total of 878 after back-to-back rounds of 292 to close out the event.
Carson-Newman has made six-consecutive appearances in Tennessee Tech's event that is in its eighth season, the most recent coming in 2019 since last year's tournament was cancelled due to the global pandemic. That 2019 trip was a third-place finish for Carson-Newman coach Randy Wylie's group. Tom Forster and Jake Mynatt (Knoxville, Tenn.) were the only Eagles to land in the top-10 at seventh and 10th, respectively.
"We are greatly looking forward to playing in one of our favorite events at the Sevierville Golf Club River Course," Wylie said. "We've been looking for a strong finish and are excited about the upcoming opportunity."
Each of the previous four trips to Sevierville ended with top-five finishes for Wylie's team, the last three all coming in the top three. C-N won the event in 2017 with Jake Headrick winning the top medalist title with a 205 total that is tied for the third-lowest in the event's running. The only other Eagle to be crowned the top individual came in 2018 with Tom Forster firing a 203, a total that sits in the top 10 for 54-hole scores in the South Atlantic Conference and is tied for the best in the tournament's history.
Forster still holds the event's best single-round score with a 65 in the second round of 2018. He and Headrick are in a six-way tie for second with rounds of 66 in the second and third rounds of the 2017 event, respectively.
In the past three seasons alone, 12 Eagles have landed in the top-20 of the field, including five in 2019. As a unit, C-N holds the top two spots for single-round scores with a 274 in the second round of 2017 and a 275 in 2018's second round. It is in the top 10 for team 54-hole scores with each of its last three outings at Sevierville. The 847 in 2017 still stands as the second-lowest.
Wylie takes the exact same starting five with him from the Bearcat Classic, starting with Alex Hodge (Knoxville, Tenn.) at the No. 1 spot for a third-straight event. The senior leads the squad with a 72.5 average through the first two events of the year. His best finish thus far was a tie for eighth at the Hurricane Invitational.
Will Collins (Knoxville, Tenn.) holds down the second-seed after sharing 25th with Hodge this past week. He closed out the trip to Greenwood, S.C. one-shot shy of tying his new career-best 54-hole score he set at the 2021 season-opener.
Playing at the No. 3, Jackson Tyler (Wilmington, N.C.) is the most experienced Eagle in the lineup at the BNI, playing there two previous times. His best showing came in his most recent one, tying for 19th in 2019 with a 3-over 219. After a season away from playing, the senior is averaging a 74.0 clip through the first two events of this season, starting at the three-spot in each of those tournaments, as well.
Like Tyler, Mynatt makes his return to the Intercollegiate field, but it will be his second-ever appearance. His debut in 2019 resulted in a 10th-place finish at 2-under, the best showing of his freshman campaign. That result still stands as the best leaderboard finish in his career.
Jonathan Nielsen (Hørsholm, Denmark) stays at the No. 5 spot again this week after a tie for 52nd in his Carson-Newman debut. He was 9-over at last week's Bearcat Classic.
Carson-Newman will be one of 15 teams competing in the event that hosts mostly Division I teams. Fellow SAC school Tusculum will also make an appearance. Aside from C-N, the only other returning top-three team from the last Intercollegiate is Eastern Kentucky who was 11 shots better than the Eagles for second-place.
The 54-hole event opens up Sunday morning with a shotgun start to open up the first round of action at 8:30. Both of the following days of play will consist of single rounds, as well. Fans can follow along with live scoring through Golfstat for each round.
