The Tennessee Tech men’s golf team will be traveling to its final tournament of the fall on Nov. 3. The Hummingbird Intercollegiate will be hosted by Western Carolina.
The three-day tournament in North Carolina is a bit different than the typical season tournaments. A normal tournament played in the regular season is a two-day event with 36 holes played on the first day and 18 holes played the second day. The three-day tourney will feature 18 holes of play each day.
West Carolina, Belmont and Samford are some of the notable teams participating in the tournament.
“It will be a little cooler than what they’ve played in the first four events,” said head coach Polk Brown. “They just have to adjust to it.”
The Golden Eagles are led by the hot streak sophomore Mitch Thomas heading into the tournament.
Thomas is currently top five in the Ohio Valley Conference for men’s golfers and has not shot a round over 75 all season. He averages a little over 71 per round. His best tournament finish was in the Bearcat Invitational with a total of 211. That was good enough for a second place tie.
Thomas’ last three tournament finishes have been in the top 15, including back to back top five finishes most recently. He also received all-tournament honors in the last two competitions.
“I knew he’d be an outstanding player, but he’s really starting to play the way I know he’s capable of playing,” said Brown.
However, Brown did not discredit the team’s performance.
“It’s been a team effort the whole semester,” said Brown. “They’ve really come together and we’re very balanced from top to bottom. At any given round, any one of my players can shoot a low round.”
Tech hopes to close out this portion of the season by mending the second round struggle they’ve been having. They look to play more consistently throughout the entirety of the tournament.
“It’s been pretty consistent. The second round is where we’ve struggled to play well, but we’re trying to get over that hump,” said Brown. “It’d be great for us to have a chance to win it going into the third round.”
Despite those struggles, Coach Brown and the Golden Eagles are looking to finish this season strong.
“It’ll be fun to see how they close it out,” said Brown.
