BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State men's golf looks to build upon signs of statistical improvement as the squad gears up for their second fall tournament action of 2019. The Mountaineers are set to compete in the Wildcat Invitational, a three-round, two-day tournament hosted by Villanova University, up in Malvern, Pennsylvania starting on Monday, Sept. 30.
"Short game work has been a big focus for us leading up to this tournament," head coach Forshey said. "The thing I'm looking for us to continue to improve on is our mentality."
The course of choice is a par-71, 6,717 yard course at the White Manor Country Club. After extensive renovations, White Manor's course was named as one of Pennsylvania's Top 25 golf courses by Golf Digest.
Appalachian will be completing alongside and against the likes of Boston College, Delaware, Georgetown, Rhode Island, St. John's and Villanova. Five of the seven participating universities return to this particular invitational from a season ago.
In fact, the Mountaineers claimed the Wildcat Invitational team title last fall eight strokes ahead of second-place finisher Delaware. However, App will be sending an entirely new starting five up north.
"The key for us to be successful this week is for us to be who we are," Forshey said. "We need to fight for every shot out there. This is a new team. In regards to last year, there is not one player here playing that was here last year. Last year's results are last years results. We are focused on performing at our best regardless who is in the field."
As for the projected starting five, Timothius Tirto Tamardi (sophomore/Surabaya, Indonesia), Jake Lane (junior/Fort St. John, British Columbia) Dylan Lukes (senior/Chapel Hill, N.C.), Nicholas Gunnell (sophomore, Hamptonville, N.C.) and Lukas Jönnson (sophomore/Ahus, Sweden) round out the lineup. Noah Schneider (senior/Jackson, Mich.) will compete as an individual.
Coming off of a recent ninth place finish down in Hattiesburg, Miss. at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate Tournament, App State carded a combined three-round score of 864 (+12), 36.9 strokes under the 2018-19's team average tournament total.
In fact, each participating Mountaineer golfer recorded a tournament round average under their official round averages from a season ago. Timothius Tirto Tamardi (70) and Nicholas Gunnell (73.33) both lead the way in this particular category with a combined -9.28 stroke average below their personal 2018-19 statistical averages.
The Mountaineers eye to do more of the same and will tee off Monday morning bright and early at 9 a.m. in a shotgun format. Round two will commence immediately following the conclusion of round one.
Tuesday's third and final round will also begin as a shotgun formatted start at 9 a.m.
Follow along with this live stats link https://birdiefire.com/tournament/61249/ from BirdieFire.
