The Arkansas men’s golf team, ranked 17th in the Preseason Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll, will open its 2018-19 season this weekend (Aug. 31-Sept. 2) at the Carmel Cup, played at the historic Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The Carmel Cup is in its eighth year of existence and the event annually features the top teams in the nation. This year is no different as the eight-team field includes defending national champion and preseason #1 Oklahoma State, #3 Oklahoma, #5 Vanderbilt, #15 Texas Tech, #17 Arkansas, #30 Georgia, Mississippi State and TCU.
“This is a very strong field to face early in the season,” said Brad McMakin, who starts his 13th season as the Arkansas head coach. “It’s great for our team to play such high-caliber teams this early in the season. It will give us a measuring stick as to where we are as a program to start the season. I feel our team is as strong as it has been in years. We have some experience to go along with a ton of young talent. This should be an exciting season for Razorback golf and we look forward to competing at a high level this week.”
In addition to having six teams that are in the preseason top 30, the event will showcase some of the nation’s top individuals.
– Arkansas junior Mason Overstreet was at Pebble Beach two weeks ago as he reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur championship. Overstreet was named All-Region last season and he was 2017 NCAA runner-up.
– Oklahoma State’s Viktor Hovland won the 2018 U.S. Amateur.
– Vanderbilt had three players – John Augenstein, Will Gordon, and Harrison Ott – advanced to the U.S. Amateur round of 32 with Gordon reaching the quarterfinals.
– Oklahoma All-American Brad Dalke was the 2016 U.S. Amateur runner-up and returns with fellow All-Americans Quade Cummins and Blaine Hale.
The Carmel Cup format is a bit different from most collegiate events in that six players will participate each of the three days with the best five rounds counting toward the team score. Arkansas’ lineup will be: (1) Mason Overstreet, (2) Julian Perico, (3) Luis Garza, (4) Tyson Reeder, (5) William Buhl and (6) Wil Gibson.
This is the fifth consecutive year Arkansas has been selected to participate in the Carmel Cup, college golf’s version of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Live Scoring/Results can be found by clicking: https://bit.ly/2LCP1ID.
