The ACU golf team will tee off in Houston for their second tournament this spring at the Houston Baptist Spring Invitational.
The Traditions at Cypresswood Golf Club is a 36-hole course stretching over 600 acres. The two courses included are both the Traditional and Cypress course, but the Traditional course is where the tournament will take place.
The tournament invited 15 teams, which included several Southland conference competitors such as Central Arkansas, Incarnate Word, Nicholls State and host, Houston Baptist.
The traditional course is a par 72 course with a length of 7,220 yards from the black tees. The course includes 10 par 4s, four par 3s and four par 5s. The teams will play from either the back tees or the champion tees, depending on how the officials decide to play it.
The five starters playing representing ACU this week will be seniors Luke Carpenter and Dillon Vaughn, juniors Ryan Beatty and Brandon Stites, and freshman Garrett Glanton.
Glanton finished third last week as an individual and moved into a starter this week. Glanton said this last week he worked on his swing to try and eliminate some of the left misses he had last week in Louisiana.
The individual playing for ACU in Houston will be junior Robert Johnson from Helensburgh, Scotland.
“I’m a little annoyed to not be in the starting line up, but it just gives me something to prove this week,” Johnson said. “It’s always fun to play as a Wildcat.”
The tournament will begin Monday morning and end on Tuesday. Sunday will be the practice round. The ‘Cats left Saturday morning in hopes to walk the course.
“We didn’t get to do a whole lot yesterday,” Johnson said. “We got in fairly late and just got to chip and putt.”
ACU golf coach Tom Shaw said the practice round will be very important because no one on the team, including himself, has played the course.
“I’ll try to make a game plan that plays to my strength of driving the ball a long way and give myself a chance of some good rounds,” Johnson said.
The Wildcats are coming back from last week’s fifth place finish and a top five finisher.
