The 9th ranked Gamecock men’s golf team will look for a strong start to their season at the Bayou City Collegiate Championship.
After finishing one of the most productive fall seasons in school history, the Gamecocks open their spring schedule on the road.
The schedule features five tournaments before the SEC Championship in mid-April. NCAA Regionals are in May and the NCAA championship will conclude in early June.
In the less formal fall schedule, the Gamecocks won two of four tournaments, including a victory at the Camden Collegiate Invitational to close out the fall slate.
Last spring, South Carolina fell just short of the match play stage of the NCAA championship, claiming 9th. This year, the team is confident they can make more noise in the tournament.
“One thing this team is capable of doing is making it to match play at NCAAs, and we would like to do that,” senior Will Murphy said. “From there, it's anybody's championship to win, so one of our big goals is to put ourselves in a position to do that.”
This weekend, the Gamecocks will travel to Houston, Texas. The team will face a loaded field that includes three other Top 15 teams. The tournament will be held at the Golf Club of Houston, home of the Shell Houston Open PGA tour event.
Among those joining the Gamecocks in the 15-team field are No. 5 Texas, No. 8 Baylor and No. 13 South Florida.
College players don’t often get the chance to play on courses the PGA Tour also visits, so several players get excited for those events.
“It's always special to play where the pros play, and I look forward to starting our season out there,” Murphy said of Houston.
Fellow senior Caleb Sturgeon brings experience to each tournament. Sturgeon ranks fifth in school history in career scoring average. He and Murphy lead a talented group of experienced players.
The Gamecocks have two golfers ranked in the top 100 nationally. Juniors Will Starke and Matt NeSmith are ranked 13th and 51st, respectively. Both golfers had productive fall schedules.
NeSmith finished the four-tournament slate with two top 10 finishes and a match play win. Starke ended with three top fives and never finished a tournament over par.
The Gamecocks will look for the juniors to come up big down the stretch.
South Carolina will, in all likelihood, rotate their starting five this spring. The team has threats up and down the roster.
“One thing we have this year is a ton of depth,” assistant coach Alex Hamilton said. “We have eight guys that can play with anyone in the country, so it is going to be exciting to see who steps forward to lead us this spring."
Throughout the spring, the Gamecocks will only play in the Palmetto state twice. South Carolina will host the Palmetto Intercollegiate the weekend of March 9 and the Hootie at Bull’s Bay Intercollegiate the weekend of March 29.