Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Sunday, September 28
Columbus, OH/Scarlet Course
Middle Tennessee
at
Jack Nicklaus Invitational
Raiders look to improve at OSU
9/27/2014 12:04:00 PM | Men's Golf
Tourney begins Sunday
COLUMBUS - The Middle Tennessee men's golf team will head to Columbus, Ohio this weekend for two days of what Coach Whit Turnbow hopes will be continued improvement as they tee it up in the Jack Nicklaus Invitational on Sunday and Monday.
The two-day tournament will be hosted by Ohio State University, where Nicklaus was an All-American golfer during his collegiate days.
It will be played on the Scarlet course, a long 7,455-yard, par 71 layout. There will be 36 holes on Sunday and the final 18 holes on Monday.
And for the third tournament in a row, the Blue Raiders will be challenged by a field loaded with strong teams from around the nation. Among the favorites will be East Tennessee, Georgia Regents (formerly Augusta State), Kansas State, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Middle Tennessee, Northern Illinois, host Ohio State, Pepperdine, Purdue, Troy and Tulsa.
Turnbow, as he did before the Memphis Intercollegiate, has inserted a freshman on the five-man team, hoping to find the right combination.
This time it will be Connor Slane, a red-shirt freshman from Helena, Alabama. Slane played as an independent in the Memphis Intercollegiate on September 15th-16th, and wound up shooting the second-best score among the Blue Raider contingent, although it did not count toward the team total.
Slane will be joined by senior Payne Denman, who led the team at Memphis, freshman Connor Smith, junior Drake Duncan and senior Brett Patterson.
The team will be trying to break an uncharacteristic string of two tournaments in which they finished in last place. At the Carpet Capital Collegiate, MT wound up 14th among the 14 teams, and two weeks ago the Blue Raiders were 13th among the Baker's Dozen teams at Memphis.
But there are signs of improvement. Denman has posted a 73.5 stroke average per 18 holes (best on the team) and shot a 71 at Memphis. Both Drake Duncan and Connor Smith have turned in rounds of 72.
The most puzzling performance thus far this fall has been the play of senior Brett Patterson, who has been a steady leader for most of his career
"There is nothing physically wrong with him, his back is fine, he is just struggling right now, but we have made some significant progress the last couple of weeks, and I know he is eager to get back out there again.
"We have not yet played the way we are capable of playing," declared Turnbow. "But we also realize that we have only played six rounds of 28-30 rounds that we will play all the way to May. We understand it is a very small piece of what we are doing.
"There is a lot of golf left to be played, and the guys' attitudes have been good. They are working, and keeping things in the right perspective, and I think at the end of the day, it is going to turn itself around," Turnbow added.
"We just have to be patient and stick to the process of what we are doing, and everything is going to be okay.
"We just have to stick together and play well as a group, and that is how you get competitive. We are going to get back out there and give it everything we've got and see what happens."
The progress of the Blue Raiders can be followed on GolfStat.com throughout the tournament.
The two-day tournament will be hosted by Ohio State University, where Nicklaus was an All-American golfer during his collegiate days.
It will be played on the Scarlet course, a long 7,455-yard, par 71 layout. There will be 36 holes on Sunday and the final 18 holes on Monday.
And for the third tournament in a row, the Blue Raiders will be challenged by a field loaded with strong teams from around the nation. Among the favorites will be East Tennessee, Georgia Regents (formerly Augusta State), Kansas State, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Middle Tennessee, Northern Illinois, host Ohio State, Pepperdine, Purdue, Troy and Tulsa.
Turnbow, as he did before the Memphis Intercollegiate, has inserted a freshman on the five-man team, hoping to find the right combination.
This time it will be Connor Slane, a red-shirt freshman from Helena, Alabama. Slane played as an independent in the Memphis Intercollegiate on September 15th-16th, and wound up shooting the second-best score among the Blue Raider contingent, although it did not count toward the team total.
Slane will be joined by senior Payne Denman, who led the team at Memphis, freshman Connor Smith, junior Drake Duncan and senior Brett Patterson.
The team will be trying to break an uncharacteristic string of two tournaments in which they finished in last place. At the Carpet Capital Collegiate, MT wound up 14th among the 14 teams, and two weeks ago the Blue Raiders were 13th among the Baker's Dozen teams at Memphis.
But there are signs of improvement. Denman has posted a 73.5 stroke average per 18 holes (best on the team) and shot a 71 at Memphis. Both Drake Duncan and Connor Smith have turned in rounds of 72.
The most puzzling performance thus far this fall has been the play of senior Brett Patterson, who has been a steady leader for most of his career
"There is nothing physically wrong with him, his back is fine, he is just struggling right now, but we have made some significant progress the last couple of weeks, and I know he is eager to get back out there again.
"We have not yet played the way we are capable of playing," declared Turnbow. "But we also realize that we have only played six rounds of 28-30 rounds that we will play all the way to May. We understand it is a very small piece of what we are doing.
"There is a lot of golf left to be played, and the guys' attitudes have been good. They are working, and keeping things in the right perspective, and I think at the end of the day, it is going to turn itself around," Turnbow added.
"We just have to be patient and stick to the process of what we are doing, and everything is going to be okay.
"We just have to stick together and play well as a group, and that is how you get competitive. We are going to get back out there and give it everything we've got and see what happens."
The progress of the Blue Raiders can be followed on GolfStat.com throughout the tournament.
Players Mentioned
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