The Arkansas State men’s golf team will begin play in the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Golf Championships at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Mississippi, on April 26.
The event is important as it determines the conference champion and provides teams an opportunity to advance based on their performance. The tournament will be held on a par-72, 7,157-yard course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Annandale Golf Club has hosted several championship events since opening in 1981 and was home to the PA Tour Sanderson Farms Championship from 1994 to 2013.
Competition starts with three rounds of stroke play beginning Monday. Teams will tee off from split tees at 8:30 a.m., with six teams starting from No. 1 and eight teams from No. 10. The top four teams after the initial rounds will move on to match play scheduled for Thursday, April 30. Semifinal matches start at 7:30 a.m., followed by the championship match later that day. ESPN+ will broadcast all rounds live, and live scoring is available through Scoreboard.
For ten consecutive seasons, Arkansas State enters as one of the top four seeds in this championship and currently holds the top seed position, ranked No. 45 nationally according to SCOREBOARD NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Rankings. Other top-ranked conference opponents include Georgia Southern (53), Southern Miss (66), South Alabama (77), and Coastal Carolina (82). Arkansas State also leads in stroke average this season with a score of 281.4.
Senior Thomas Schmidt tops the conference individually with a single-season program record average of 69.04 strokes per round. He is joined by teammates Jake Wallis, Milan Reed, Cole Kirby, Jake Lile, and substitute Viggo Hed for this event.
According to the official website, Arkansas State Red Wolves Men’s Golf competes in the Sun Belt Conference as part of its intercollegiate athletics program affiliated with Arkansas State University and plays home events in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The team features players from both international backgrounds—including Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Australia and England—and various U.S states.
