AUBURN, Ala. – No. 2 Auburn men's golf heads to Las Vegas, Nevada for another tall test at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Sunday, Feb. 25 – Tuesday, Feb. 27 at Southern Highlands Golf Club.
"Our team has the confidence to know that we're a very strong group, but I told them that we've still got to earn everything," Tigers head coach Nick Clinard said. "Being ranked top-five is not given, we've got to continue to show why our team is so dangerous. This tournament will have another strong field that will require us to be at the top of our game, which is exactly the type of environment we want to emulate as we inch closer and closer to the postseason."
This weekend's field includes No. 1 North Carolina, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 16 Florida, No. 20 Illinois, No. 22 Texas, RV Georgia, RV Texas A&M as well as Missouri, New Mexico, Pepperdine, San Diego State and TCU.
As an extra incentive to come out on top, the individual winner of the tournament will receive an exemption for the PGA Tour's Shriners Children's Open at TPC Summerlin in October.
Representing Auburn at Southern Highlands will be senior J.M. Butler, redshirt-junior Carson Bacha, junior Brendan Valdes, sophomore Reed Lotter as well as freshman Jackson Koivun.
For Sunday's first set of 18, the Tigers will play alongside Oklahoma and Arizona State. Butler will lead off from hole 1 at 11:40 a.m. CT. The rest of the lineup will follow in 10-minute intervals.
Last time out, the Tigers fought their way to a third-place finish at the Amer Ari Invitational in Waikoloa, Hawai'i. As a team, Auburn shot a school-record 58 strokes below par. Koivun was the lineup's low scorer at 17-under. He finished tied for fourth. Valdes also finished inside the top-10 for a fifth consecutive outing.
Following the Amer Ari, Koivun garnered SEC Golfer of the Week honors for the third time this season. He is the first freshman in program history to win overall player of the week at least once. Koivun, Valdes and Butler were also all named to the 2024 Ben Hogan Award Watch List.
Live scoring for the Southern Highlands Collegiate will be tracked via Golf Genius. To access scoring, enter GGID: 2024SOUTHERNHIGHLANDSCOLLEGIATE.