The golf team has its third tournament of the 2016-17 season this weekend in the Bayou City Collegiate at Golfcrest Club in Pearland.
The tournament begins Monday morning with 36 holes and wraps up with the final 18 holes Tuesday, as it will be hosted by the University of Houston. The Cougars join will also be joined by Rice and Sam Houston State as co-hosts of this tournament.
The Wildcats finished 12th as a team last weekend at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate and hope to improve in this tournament. Junior G.K. Morrison led the way for ACU as he finished tied for 23rd individually.
Senior Kyle Karnei thinks that this young team has a lot of potential.
“I’m expecting big things from the team this week,” said Karnei. “We have been making great progress in practice the last couple weeks and have been close all semester to putting together a complete tournament. So hopefully that will carry over into our play this week.”
The Wildcats will be playing against a tough field of competition including: Houston, Rice, SHSU, Nebraska, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Kansas, Texas State and the University of Texas at Arlington.
The team will also be facing conference opponents Houston Baptist and McNeese State.
Junior Clarke Hudgins wants to improve his game this season and thinks that the new players will help the success of the team.
“I expect to keep improving my play, and am working to play more even keel and focused,” said Hudgins. “Last year was pretty rough for me and I did not play well, so I’m looking to bounce back. With coach recruiting great players like Bill (Ramage) and Bryce (Dooley), we are very close to winning our conference.”
Ramage and Dooley are freshmen players that were highly recruited in their respective high schools and are expected to do big things during their first season as Wildcats.
This tournament will help the players see where they rank up against conference teams since they will face two Southland competitors.
Whether they attend the tournaments or not, seniors like Karnei are expected to help lead the team to excellence.
“We are still working on playing together as a team,” said Karnei. “We have a lot of young talent so I’m excited to see how they will progress through this season. Our ultimate goal is to win a southland conference championship and I know we have the ability to do that if we keep working hard and getting better.”
This weekend will be a good gauge for the team as it moves closer to the conference tournament.
