APSU Sports Information
Pawleys Island, SC – For the second time in program history, Austin Peay State University men and women’s golf teams will be opening their respective seasons by participating in the Golfweek Program Challenge, Sunday-Tuesday, less than 30 miles south of Myrtle Beach.
However, it will be the first time for Govs’ coach Robbie Wilson at the event. Wilson took over the Govs program last winter.
The Golf Govs will be playing on the True Blue Golf Club, 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 challenging elevations.
It will be the second time for senior Chris Baker on this course for this event. In his first college tournament as a freshman, Baker shot a three-round 229 during the 2012 tourney. Baker, an All-Ohio Valley Conference choice last spring, and fellow senior Austin Kramer, coming off his best Govs season, are expected to lead the charge at True Blue.
“We are excited to get started,” Wilson said. “The majority of our guys are coming off very good summers and are ready to pick up where we left off in April. We have three seniors (Baker, Kramer and Tyler Phillips) on this year’s team that have played in a combined 73 tournaments in their college careers, which should give us great leadership and experience.
“Last spring, Erik (Hedberg, a junior) and Justin (Arens, a sophomore) started playing well and were very good down the stretch. So nothing should surprise us and I think we will come out ready to play.”
In addition to Baker and Kramer, the lineup also will feature Phillips, a senior who transferred to APSU last January from Trevecca; Hedberg, a junior who played his career’s best golf down the stretch last spring, and Alex Rios, who transferred to APSU from Coker College last this summer and earned a spot with some strong qualifying play.
Despite the South Carolina location, the tourney field will have a strong Ohio Valley Conference flavor. In addition to the Governors, Jacksonville State, Morehead State and Tennessee Tech all will be there along with Bethune-Cookman, Campbell, Elon, Gardner-Webb, Houston Baptist, IUPUI, Jacksonville, James Madison, Marshall, Mercer, Old Dominion, Radford, Stetson and Valparaiso. Old Dominion is the defending men’s champ and overall champion.
