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HomeSportsAustin Peay Governors Golf looks for strong start at Golfweek Challenge

Austin Peay Governors Golf looks for strong start at Golfweek Challenge

Written by Brad Kirtley
APSU Sports Information

Austin Peay State University GovernorsPawleys Island, SC – A determined Austin Peay State University men’s golf team will open the 2012 Fall season when it travels to Pawleys Island, SC, to play in the Golfweek Program Challenge, Sunday-Tuesday, at the True Blue Golf Resort.

Austin Peay Men's Golf. (Courtesy: Austin Peay Sports Information)
Austin Peay Men’s Golf. (Courtesy: Austin Peay Sports Information)

True Blue is considered one of the South’s Top 20 golf courses. The three-day 54-hole event will be played on the par-72, 7,126-yard layout, which features vast fairways and incredible elevations.

Men and women’s teams from 12 NCAA Division I schools will play 54 holes on separate courses. After the completion of the final round, men and women’s team champions will be crowned. But so, too, will be the Program Challenge winner – the school (both men’s and women’s teams) that has the lowest cumulative score.

Austin Peay is coming off a superb 2011-12 season was derailed at campaign’s end by a second-place Ohio Valley Conference tournament finish. It was the only time during the season an OVC opponent defeated the Govs.  Overall, the Govs had eight Top 5 tourney finishes, including two championships during the season.

Back are first-team All-OVC selection Dustin Korte; second-team pick Anthony Bradley, the OVC individual champion who qualified for NCAA Regional play a year ago, and Marco Iten, one of the top five Swiss amateurs. Korte is the team’s lone senior while Bradley and Iten are juniors.

Sophomore Tucker Wallace, a member of the 2011-12 OVC All-Newcomer team, returns along with junior Trey Tarpley. However, it will be a pair of fresh faces who will replace that duo in the opening tournament. Redshirt freshman Corey Smith, of Murfreesboro, TN and freshman Chris Baker, of Franklin, TN earned the final two spots during Govs’ qualifying play.

A second freshman, Austin Kramer, recently finished fifth in the Tennessee Junior Amateur. Also returning is redshirt freshman Cleve Guinn along with junior Alasdair MacLennan.

“It will be a great event for us to start at this year,” APSU coach Kirk Kayden said. “We are honored to get an invitation to play in this event.

“The guys have worked hard in qualifying the past two weeks and it has been very competitive. It has shown that we have more than five good players this year.”

Also participating will be Boston College, Stetson, Campbell, Troy, fellow OVC foe Jacksonville State, James Madison, Northern Iowa, Central Arkansas, UMKC, Western Carolina and Georgetown.

Kayden is looking forward to seeing his Govs challenged on one of the top courses in the Myrtle Beach area.

“True Blue looks like a golf course where you have to keep the ball in play off the tee and that is going to be our number one priority going into the event,” Kayden said.

“The guys are motivated to get the season off to a good start”.

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