AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 6 Auburn men's golf team is set to travel to Scottsdale, Ariz. for its second tournament of the season - the Maui Jim Intercollegiate. The Tigers play at the par-70, 7,081-yard course at Mirabel Golf Club, Sept. 21-23.
Auburn is one of five ranked teams in the field, joining No. 7 Georgia Tech, No. 9 LSU, No. 13 Clemson and No. 19 Arizona State. The tournament is rounded out by Augusta, Georgia State, Houston, Kansas State, Kent State, Minnesota, NC State, Oregon and Oregon State.
"It's our inaugural event out west and it's a good venue for us at Mirabel," head coach Nick Clinard said. "David Engram - the director of golf at Mirabel - and Maui Jim have both put a lot into this event. It's a great field. We've got a lot of east coast teams coming and a nice flavor of midwest and west coast teams.
"Mirabel is a very scorable golf course. The conditions will be great. It's like playing in a dome out there - not a lot of rough and not a lot of wind, so it should be very scorable. It should be a good event for us and we've got a good lineup going. We're ready to go compete."
The Tigers will trot out Ryan Knop, Brandon Mancheno, Wells Padgett, Jovan Rebula and Jacob Solomon with Graysen Huff competing as an individual.
Auburn capped its first tournament of the fall with a final team score of 2-over (293-284-289--866) at the Carpet Capital Collegiate nearly two weeks ago.
Knop, who currently stands as the No. 17 golfer in the country in the latest Golfweek ranking, led the Tigers in their season-opener. The junior tied for fourth in the 54-hole event with a final cared of 6-under (71-70-68--210).
Solomon and Mancheno also racked up top-20 finishes at the Carpet Capital Collegiate as the duo finished in a tied for 11th and 16th, respectively.
Solomon turned in a three-round score of 2-under (74-71-69--214), while Mancheno ended the three circuits of the par-72 course at even-par (73-71-72--216).
The Tigers are paired with Clemson and Oregon off the 10th tee, beginning at 9:20 a.m. CT. Live scoring is available on Golfstat.com.
No. 6 Tigers head west for Maui Jim Intercollegiate
Dakota Sumpter