Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
Reunion Intercollegiate
Rested Raiders look for 4th win in a row
4/3/2011 5:37:00 AM | Men's Golf
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - With three consecutive wins and a national ranking under their belts, Middle Tennessee's golf team will travel to the BancorpSouth Intercollegiate tournament, hosted by Ole Miss, on Monday and Tuesday. A victory there would tie the school record of four straight tournament wins.
Fifteen teams, primarily from the SEC, Conference USA and Sun Belt, will make up the field at the Reunion Golf and Country Club in Madison, MS. Reunion is a Par 72, 7,305-yard course. The teams will play 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday.
The Blue Raiders, ranked 38th nationally, have reeled off multi-stroke wins in all three of their spring tournaments so far, and have moved up in the rankings each week. It has been more than two weeks since their last tournament, however, and Coach Whit Turnbow is a little apprehensive about the long layoff.
"We haven't played since March 15th, but that can be both good and bad," Turnbow pointed out. "On one hand, we are well-rested and caught up on our academics, and that's good. On the other hand, when you are hot, you want to keep playing. We've only been playing against each other for two weeks now, and are ready to play against someone else.
"Also, there is no team in the field that is ranked higher than we are, so we don't have anybody to shoot at. Instead, everybody will be shooting at us. That will present a little different situation for us, too."
Turnbow again pointed to the quality depth on his team as being a major factor in the team's success.
"We have had both Jason Millard and Hunter Green win individual honors so far, Jason at the Mobile Bay Invitational, and Hunter at both the USF Invitational and the Bulldog Classic at Louisiana Tech."
Turnbow continues to be pleased with the depth that his team has developed since the fall schedule. In rounds played so far this spring, the team has shot well enough to break par in five of the nine rounds. They have won the three outings by a combined 48 stroke margin.
Individually, senior Jason Millard leads the team this spring with a 70.67 stroke average, followed by junior Hunter Green (71.56), freshman Brett Patterson (73.0), junior Brad Simons (73.11) and freshman Paul Sansom (74.0).
Millard won the Mobile Bay Invitational with a course record 63 on the final day, and has been chosen as the National Player of the Week once, as well as the Sun Belt Player of the month for March. Green won the last two tournaments, at USF and Squire Creek, with five of his six rounds being under-par.
Millard's best round this spring is the 63 he shot at Mobile, Green and Simons have both shot at least one 67, while freshmen Paul Sansom and Brett Patterson have recorded best rounds of 70.
"We have built up a lot of confidence now, and as long as we focus on playing the golf course instead of the other teams, we should continue to play well," said Turnbow. "When we take care of business, we are hard to beat."
The Blue Raiders will have a quick turnaround after their visit to Ole Miss, with the next tournament being hosted by Duke on April 9-10 in Charlotte, NC.
