Troy Men’s Golf Opens Season at The Invitational at Kiawah Island

Friday, September 12

Kiawah Island, S.C.

All Day

Troy University

The Invitational at Kiawah

Troy Men’s Golf Opens Season at The Invitational at Kiawah Island

9/11/2014 1:36:00 PM | Golf (M)

By: Adam Prendergast

Live Scoring | 2013-14 Final Stats

TROY, Ala. – Fresh off the heels of a near NCAA Regional appearance, the Troy men's golf team opens its 2014-15 season this weekend at The Invitational at Kiawah Island. The 54-hole tournament runs Friday through Sunday on the par 72, 7,115-yard Ocean Course at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

"We are ready to get started after a long summer," head coach Matt Terry said. "All in all we had our best season rankings wise last year, but it still ended on a sour note as we finished about 14 spots out of an at-large berth into regionals. We can learn a lot from what we did last year and understand that we need to take care of business every round."

The Ocean Course played host to the 2012 PGA Championship and the 1999 Ryder Cup and features more seaside holes than any other course in the Northern Hemisphere.

"It will be very interesting to see how the course plays at the collegiate level," Terry said. "Our guys are excited to play there, because not a lot of people have the opportunity to play the course."

The Trojans return everyone from last year's squad that finished the season ranked 78^th nationally by Golf Stat, including first team All-Sun Belt selection and NCAA Regional qualifier Jared Bettcher. The core of Troy's lineup will be three seniors in Tolver Dozier, Phillip Brennan and Jake Tucker.

"All of our guys look a little different this fall," Terry said. "They understand what they want to do as a group and we have some very lofty goals individually and as a team. The good thing is they are smart enough because they have all been there before and they've learned from their failures."

Joining those four in Troy's lineup at The Invitational will be sophomore Luke Moser, who had an impressive summer on the amateur circuit in Canada. Moser wasn't the only Trojan playing well this summer as Dozier qualified and competed in the U.S. Amateur Championship, while Bettcher, Brennan and Tucker took the top three spots at the Montgomery Country Club Invitational.

"Our guys did exactly what they needed to this summer," Terry said. "We had a lot of good rounds of golf leading into the fall. We just need to take care of business every round and use what we learned last year."

Troy will be in the final wave on the course, as they will tee off at 8:10 a.m. on No. 1 along with Charleston Southern and Towson. The remainder of the field includes College of Charleston, Francis Marion, Duke, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Kentucky, Navy, Stephen F. Austin, South Florida, UT Arlington and Western Carolina.