Championship Central
MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. - The 2016 Sun Belt Men's Golf Championship is set to begin on Sunday, April 24 at the Raven Golf Club at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Miramar Beach, Fla. This year's championship will feature a 54-hole stroke play event to crown the individual champion, but the overall team champion will be determined in match play format from the top four finishing teams.
Golfers from all 11 Sun Belt teams will take to the approximately 6,900-yard par-71 course. Sunday's opening round begins at 7:30 a.m. CT with a shotgun start as groups will continue to tee off until 8:51 a.m. CT.
Fifty-five men's golfers will take to the course and for many of them, this will be their third opportunity to play the Raven in the past two seasons. Last year was the first year of four the Raven Golf Club will serve as the championship site and earlier this fall several men's teams came out to a Fall Preview at the Raven. The Troy Trojans claimed that title with Georgia Southern finishing as the runner-up last September.
The Eagles are the reigning Sun Belt champions as they took the 2015 title in their first season in the conference. The Eagles lost four seniors on last year's squad that won the tournament title by 16 strokes last season. Steven Fisk, Henry Mabbett, Archer Price, Cody O'Toole and Jonas Vaisanen will be in the lineup for the Eagles this year. Price is the lone student-athlete who was in the lineup for last year's Sun Belt Championship, but all five played in the Sun Belt Preview.
The Trojans of Troy enter as the top seed in the tournament and are rated No. 63 by Golfweek.com. Troy owns a 291.15 scoring average with a pair of wins on the season, including the Fall Preview at the Raven. Luke Moser leads the Trojans ith a 73.04 stroke average, shot 7-under in the Sun Belt Preview en route to finishing in second place individually. Jared Bettcher was 4-under to place sixth, while Clayton Vannoy tied for seventh at 1-under.
Freshman Calum Masters, who ranks fifth overall in stroke average for the Trojans, has turned in the best spring of any golfer on the team. Masters has posted a 72.92 average through four spring events, which is 4.08 strokes lower than his fall mark.
Georgia State enters the tournament looking for its eighth overall conference title and a third win on the season. Ranked No. 66 by Golfweek, the Panthers will put senior JJ Grey, junior Nathan Mallonee, sophomores Max Herrmann and Alexander Herrmann, along with freshman Nick Budd on the course this week. Grey leads the team with a 71.53 scoring average, second-lowest in program history. He has four third-place finishes this year and has only finished outside the top 25 once. Max Herrmann is second on the team with a 72.56 scoring average and finished fourth at the Furman Intercollegiate less than a month ago. His twin brother Alexander is just behind him with a 72.70 scoring average, but has put together three top 10 and six top 25 finishes this year.
The Sun Belt Championship switches to a new format this year with teams playing three rounds of stroke play before the top four teams move to match play to decide the title. Teams will play 18 holes of stroke play on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and after which an individual champion will be crowned. However, the top four teams at the conclusion of the 54-hole stroke play, will advance to match play. The semifinals and finals of match play set for Wednesday. The top seed will matchup against the fourth seed and will tee off on the No. 1 tee on Wednesday, while the second seed will matchup against the third seed and tee off on the No. 10 tee. Morning tee times will begin at 7:30 a.m. CT. The championship match will tee off the No. 1 tee at a time to be determined.
This year's event will include live video coverage from the Sun Belt. The league will broadcast live from the Raven with coverage of the No. 10 tee and No. 13 green. Fans can access this video by visiting www.SunBeltSports.org. Live scoring will be available through GolfStat.com as well as on the Women's Golf Championship Central page.