AUBURN, Ala. – No. 6 Auburn men's golf winds down its regular season schedule with the Mossy Oak Collegiate, April 3-4, at Mossy Oak Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi.
"Mossy Oak is a great way to prepare ourselves for the postseason," Tigers head coach Nick Clinard said. "The course is great, and the level of competition is tough. We've had a couple of weeks between events to really work on our ball control with our short irons and wedges as well as sharpen our putting, so those are the areas that Coach Williams and I will specifically be evaluating and looking for improvement this week."
For the second-straight year, the Tigers will be teeing it up in West Point. At the 2022 Mossy Oak Collegiate, the Tigers finished second with a team tally of 13-under 851. In its final round, the Orange & Blue smashed the tournament solo round record with a 10-under 278. Junior J.M. Butler finished tied for fourth at 210 (-6), six strokes off individual winner Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt.
To capture top honors this season and solidify its school-record fifth team title of the season, Auburn will need to come out on top of an 18-team field. Of the 18 competitors, six are ranked in the top-25 and three more are just outside, receiving votes in all major polls.
Vying for gold in Mississippi will be Abilene Christian, No. 17 Alabama, No. 6 Auburn, RV Cincinnati, No. 24 Kansas State, Lamar, RV Liberty, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, RV LSU, Memphis, Middle Tennessee, No. 20 Mississippi State, No. 22 Ole Miss, Southern Miss, No. 15 Tennessee, Troy and UAB.
The Tigers roll into Mossy Oak following a third-place performance at the General Hackler Championship two weeks ago. At the Hackler, the team carded an 849 (-15) and was led by sophomore Brendan Valdes and Butler, both of whom finished inside the top-10, shooting 210 (-6) and 211 (-5), respectively.
Both men make up half of the four Tigers recognized in Golfstat's latest top 100 player rankings. Valdes leads the pack at No. 27 while Butler clocks in at No. 54. Following tightly behind Butler are freshman Reed Lotter at No. 56 and junior Carson Bacha at No. 57.
Joining the foursome for another dose of competition will be junior Ryan Eshleman and senior Alex Vogelsong. All six men will battle it out in the practice round for five spots in the team lineup with the final player to be designated as an individual for the duration of the tournament.
For day one, all teams will play a continuous 36 holes beginning with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. CT. Auburn will go off 5-7 and play alongside Alabama, Southern Miss and Liberty for the first two rounds of action.
Live scoring for the duration of the Mossy Oak Collegiate can be found at Golfstat.com.
