AUBURN, Ala. – It's a busy week for No. 1 Auburn men's golf as all 11 of its available men hit the links either at the Fallen Oak Collegiate at Fallen Oak Golf Club in Biloxi, Mississippi or at the MartinFed Invitational hosted by Turtle Point in Florence, Alabama.
Auburn's top six will compete at Fallen Oak Sunday, Oct. 15 through Tuesday, Oct. 17. The remaining five men will tee off at Turtle Point Oct. 16-17.
"Any time you can get 11 players true, head-to-head tournament reps, it's going to be a good week," Tigers head coach Nick Clinard said. "It's a chance for all of our guys to figure out what holes they have in their game and how they need to fix them. I expect both of our teams to compete hard and represent the logo on their chest with the utmost respect and dignity. If both groups can execute like they are capable of, there is no reason why they should not end the week on top of the leaderboard."
Led by Clinard as well as assistant coach Chris Williams, the Biloxi group consists of fifth year Alex Vogelsong, seniors J.M. Butler and Ryan Eshleman, junior Brendan Valdes, sophomore Reed Lotter and freshman Jackson Koivun. Vogelsong is the Tigers' individual golfer for the tournament.
In addition to the top-ranked Tigers, No. 3 Ole Miss and No. 10 Mississippi State round out the top-25 teams in this week's field. SMU is on the bubble as a program that is receiving votes. The final eight schools vying for a trophy are Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, UCF, UNLV and Wisconsin.
Through its three fall events, Auburn has racked up two wins and one second place finish last week at The Williams Cup. Valdes has been the Tigers' low man in both previous tournaments. He has finished inside the top-10 of all three.
Butler and Valdes are both inching closer to a collection of career milestones. Four more rounds in the 60s for Butler will tie Jovan Rebula (2016-21) for the program record, and one more subpar round will push him into an elite three-man club of Auburn golfers with at least 60 subpar rounds in their career.
Valdes requires five more birdies to crack 300 in his tenure. After hitting the 300 mark, Valdes will need just 51 more to enter the program's top-10 list.
For the Fallen Oak Collegiate's opening round, Auburn will play alongside Kansas and UCF. Vogelsong kickstarts 10-minute tee intervals from the 10th hole at 9:30 a.m. CT.
Led by assistant coach Buddy Alexander, representing the Orange & Blue at Turtle Point are graduate student Hal Dove, seniors Carson Bacha and Max Johnson and freshmen Josiah Gilbert and Cayden Pope.
The fivesome will go toe-to-toe against Alabama A&M, Lindenwood, North Alabama, Rollins College, Samford, Southeastern Louisiana, Troy, Purdue Fort Wayne and Western Illinois. UNA will compete two teams. No. 13 Alabama and No. 4 Vanderbilt will also be represented by a handful of individual players.
Tee times for the MartinFed Invitational will be released at a later date.
Following this week's competitions, Auburn closes out its fall season at the legendary Cypress Point Club in Monterey, California. The Cypress Point Classic, a Ryder-Cup style match play tournament, will run Oct. 30-31.
