By Joshua J. Darling, Sports Information Director
LAGRANGE, Ga. – Coming off their first tournament victory in three years, LaGrange men's golf will be put to the ultimate test as they face a 30-team field that features 14 nationally ranked opponents, including nine of the Top-10, as they head to the Jekyll Island Collegiate Invitational for 54 holes from March 17-19.
That tournament will be played in Jekyll Island, Georgia at the Jekyll Island Country Club and will feature more than 150 competitors. A total of 54 holes will be played over the course of three days with the Panthers teeing off at 1:40 p.m. on Friday, March 17 and 8:04 a.m. on Saturday, March 18. Tee times for the final round on Sunday, March 19 will be determined by tournament standings.
The 2023 edition of the tournament field is perhaps the best of any in the country as the nearly half of the teams currently reside in the Bushnell/Golfweek DIII Coaches Poll.
That group is headlined by No. 1 Christopher Newport, defending national champion No. 2 Methodist, No. 3 Emory, No. 4 Piedmont, No. 5 Carnegie Mellon, No. 7 Illinois Wesleyan, No. 8 Washington & Lee, No. 9 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and No. 10 Oglethorpe. Following nine of the Top-10 in attendance are No. 12 Redlands, No. 14 Guilford, No. 16 Sewanee, No. 17 Greensboro and No. 18 Huntingdon.
The remainder of the field consists of Berry, Bridgewater, Denison, DePauw, Hampden-Sydney, Kenyon (Receiving Votes), Lynchburg (RV), New York University, Rhodes (RV), Roanoke, Rochester (RV), Skidmore (RV), Southwestern, St. John Fisher and Transylvania. That portion of the field doesn't get much easier as four of those teams are receiving votes in the national poll.
"It's always exciting coming down to Jekyll Island," said head coach Shannon Lipham. "This is one of the biggest tournaments in the country with a field that rivals the national championship. We need to build on the momentum from the win last week in Savannah. We have five freshmen here this week… it's going to be fun!."
Those 30 teams will be vying for a championship on the Pine Lakes Course, a facility originally built in 1968 and renovated in 2002. It is the island's longest course at 6,700-yards and comes in at a par-72 as it meanders through ocean forests and natural marsh hammocks.
Representing LaGrange will be freshmen Garret Armbrust (Woodstock, Ga.), Jeremy Edmunds (Charlotte, N.C.), Martin Prlender (Cordoba, Argentina), Eli Rogers (Athens, Ga.) and Park Ward (Columbus, Ga.).
Fans can follow live scoring throughout each round of the tournament and full results and recaps will be available on www.LaGrangePanthers.com, the official online home of Panthers Athletics, following the completion of each day's action.
