No. 1 Auburn back in action this week at two tournaments

AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 1 Auburn men’s golf team will head to two different tournaments as six Tigers will compete at the Williams Cup (Oct. 18-20) and three individuals are headed to the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate (Oct. 19-21).

The Williams Cup presented by STITCH Golf will be hosted by North Carolina at Eagle Point Golf Course in Wilmington, North Carolina. This will be Auburn’s fourth-straight appearance in the tournament. The Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate is hosted by ETSU and will be held at Blackthorn Club in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

“We’re looking forward to getting back out on the course against another very competitive and talented field,” head coach Nick Clinard said. “Eagle Point is a course that we’ve become familiar with and we’re hoping to come away with a great finish as a team. And looking to see good golf from our individuals in Tennessee. It’s a big week for our guys to continue to get better.”

TOURNAMENT FACTS
The Williams cup presented by STITCH Golf is being held on the par 72, 7,353-yard Eagle Point Golf Course.

The tournament field features 14 teams with seven of those schools ranked in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Top 25 poll. Joining the No. 1 Tigers will be No. 9 Florida, No. 12 Vanderbilt, No. 13 and host North Carolina, No. 15 Notre Dame, No. 17 Arizona State, No. 18 Oklahoma, North Florida, Kentucky, Augusta, NC State and UNLV.

Sunday will kick things off with 18 holes and tee times for the Tigers starting at 8:05 a.m. CT. Monday’s round two and Tuesday’s round three will also feature tee times. Live scoring for the tournament can be found HERE.

The three Auburn individuals competing at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate will go on the par 72, 7,147-yard Blackthorn Club – The Ridges Course. That tournament begins Oct. 19 and live scoring can be found HERE.

AUBURN LINEUP
Auburn’s starting five at the Williams Cup are seniors Josiah Gilbert and Cayden Pope, junior Billy Davis and sophomores Jake Albert and Logan Reilly. Freshman Alex Holder will compete as an individual.

Davis and Pope lead the team with a 71.67 and 71.83 stroke average, respectively. Davis is coming off a solid finish at the Ben Hogan Collegiate in September, finishing tied for sixth with a 1-under 209 (67-69-73).

Reilly has a team-low 66 to his credit this season, while Gilbert has been among Auburn’s top finishers in both tournaments so far.

Albert is making his first start of the season and Holder, competing as an individual, has a team-best 19 birdies through six rounds of play this year.

Freshmen Hampton Beebe and Smith Summerlin as well as junior Tyler Spielman will compete as individuals at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate. Beebe was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Oct. 7 after winning a share of the Nemacolin Collegiate Invitational in his first collegiate start.

UP NEXT
The top-ranked Tigers will travel up I-85 to compete in the prestigious East Lake Cup, Oct. 26-28, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Auburn will face off with No. 3 Oklahoma State, UCLA and Arizona in stroke play on Monday with match play beginning Tuesday.