The 2016 Fall college golf season begins this month for Georgia’s Division 1 teams, with the Georgia Bulldogs again the state’s most likely NCAA Championship contenders.
Georgia was the lone men’s team from the state to reach the NCAA Championship last May, but failed to make it to the final round of stroke play, narrowly missing the 54-hole cut after finishing first in its Regional.
The Bulldogs are coming off a three-win season in 2015-16, also collecting an SEC title at Sea Island GC, but will be without the team’s top player – Clarkesville’s Lee McCoy, as well as long-time starter Sepp Straka of Valdosta.
Georgia returns the only two players who were in the lineup for every one of the team’s tournaments last year – senior Greyson Sigg from Augusta and junior Zach Healy of Peachtree Corners.
Sigg won three times last season, including an individual title in the Regionals, had a scoring average of 71.25 with six top 10s and finished the year ranked 35th in the country. Healy was the individual champion in Georgia’s tournament in Hawaii, was sixth in Regionals and had a 71.55 scoring average, ending up ranked 80th nationally.
There will be plenty of competition for the other three spots in the lineup. Griffin sophomore Tye Waller finished last season as the Bulldogs’ fifth starter, with fellow sophomores David Mackey of Bogart and Jack Larkin, Jr. of Atlanta also making a handful of starts as freshmen.
Two of the state’s top junior golfers will make a push for starting time as freshmen, as Gainesville’s Spencer Ralston and Atlanta’s Will Chandler will likely contribute in their first season in Athens. Macon’s Matthew Beringer, like Larkin a redshirt sophomore, is also looking to move into the lineup, with Jaime Lopez Rivarola, the fifth starter for most of last season, looking for better results as a senior.
Three of Georgia’s five Fall tournaments are in either northern California or Hawaii, including events at Pebble Beach and Cypress Point. The Bulldogs also play at Colonial CC in Ft. Worth, Tex., as well as an annual stop in Nashville.
Georgia Tech returns its entire roster from a team that struggled last season after the graduation of Ollie Schniederjans and Anders Albertson.
Senior Vince Whaley, a three-year starter, and junior Jacob Joiner of Leesburg are the team’s top returnees, but neither ended the 2015-16 season ranked in the top 100 in the country. Whaley scored his second career victory at Clemson and had four top 10s, finishing the season ranked 107th. Joiner won Tech’s season opener in the Carpet Capital and had five top-20s, ending his sophomore season ranked 184th.
Junior James Clark of Columbus returns after notching a pair of top 10s last season, with senior Michael Hines of Acworth looking to bounce back after a mostly disappointing junior campaign. The Yellow Jackets’ fifth returning starter is junior Chris Petefish, who matched Clark with two top 10s in his second season as a starter.
Junior Michael Pisciotta of Alpharetta is looking to move into the lineup after playing sparingly in his first two seasons, with sophomore Tyler Joiner, Jacob’s younger brother, also looking for more playing time.
The team’s most prominent newcomer is freshman Luke Schniederjans of Powder Springs, Ollie’s younger brother, who is coming off some strong amateur showings in his final year as a junior golfer.
The Yellow Jackets are the host team for two annual Fall tournaments – the Carpet Capital at The Farm outside Dalton Sept. 9-11 and an event at Golf Club of Georgia Oct. 21-23. The team’s other Fall events are in Arizona and at famed Cypress Point in northern California.
Like Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA Championship after winning the Atlantic Sun title. The Owls, in their second season under head coach Bryant Odom, return a veteran roster, losing only two-year starter Fredrik Nilehn. Odom is a Cartersville native who played in college at Georgia before competing on what is now the Web.com Tour.
Among those returning for the Owls are senior Chris Guglielmo of Cumming, a two-year starter, Jake Fendt, also from Cumming, who had a strong debut as a freshman, and junior Wyatt Larkin of Morganton, who has been a semi-regular in each of his first two seasons.
Guglielmo had three top 10s including a tie for fourth in the Atlantic Sun Championship and a total of seven top 20s, and was the team’s highest ranked player nationally at 111. Fendt had three top 10s and six top 20s as a freshman, with Larkin contributing a trio of top-20 finishes.
Kennesaw’s other returning starters are Teremoana Beaucousin, who had an off junior year after two strong seasons, and Pablo Rodriguez-Tabernero, who contributed as a freshman.
Junior Buster Bruton of Dallas has seen limited action the past two seasons, and is joined on the roster by freshmen Walker Bottomley of Milton and Connor Coffee of Peachtree City.
Kennesaw opens its season in the Carpet Capital and hosts its annual event at Pinetree Oct. 24-25. The Owls will not travel far this Fall, with its other three tournaments in Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama.
Georgia State loses four-year starter J.J. Grey, but returns all the other front line players from a team that won two tournaments, finished first in the stroke play portion of the Sun Belt Championship and had a lot of middle-of-the-pack tournament finishes.
Lexington’s Nathan Mallonee is the team’s lone senior and had a solid junior season in his third year as a starter. Woodstock’s Nick Budd broke into the starting lineup as a freshman and recorded three top-20 finishes.
Junior brothers Alex and Max Herrmann both turned in strong sophomore seasons, with Alex recording four top 10s and Max seven top 25s, the same number as his brother.
The competition for the fifth starter will involve Gainesville sophomore Nathan William, Atlanta sophomores James Kyles and Sam Asbury, and Johns Creek junior Hayden Poole, who all made a handful of starts last season.
The Panthers host their annual event at Berkeley Hills Oct. 17-18, and travel to Arizona and Hawaii along with a pair of tournaments in the Carolinas.
Georgia Southern started strong last Fall, but had little success during the Spring. The Eagles lost only one lineup regular – Griffin’s Henry Mabbett . Five of the other six starters return, including Steven Fisk of Stockbridge, who led the team with a 72.25 scoring average as a freshman and was the Eagles’ only player who competed in all 11 tournament, recording four top-10 finishes.
Fisk’s top-10 total matches that of the remaining returnees – senior Cody O’Toole, and juniors Archer Price, Tom Storey and Jonas Vaisanen.
A trio of Georgia freshmen – Atlanta’s Alexander DeRosa, Cumming’s Brett Barron and Valdosta’s Luukas Alakulppi, join the roster this season and will look to get some playing time along with Statesboro’s Crawford Simmons, who played sparingly as a freshman.
The Eagles visit Atlanta to play in the tournament hosted by Georgia State at Berkeley Hills, and also have Fall events scheduled in the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as a Fall finale in Hawaii.
Augusta loses two of its top players from its MEAC Championship squad, with senior Broc Everett, whose runner-up finish in the conference championship was one of his four top 10s, the leading returnee. Senior Jake Marriott, who had three top 10s including a third in the MEAC, also returns along with fellow senior Emmanuel Kountakis of Augusta, who struggled in his first season with the Jaguars after transferring from Mercer.
Senior Viktor Edin, a part-time starter in his first three seasons, will look to become a full-time starter this season. Marietta’s John Yi, who has played little in his first two seasons with the Jaguars, is also looking to move into the lineup along with junior college transfer Ryan Johnson.
The Jaguars’ Fall schedule includes two events on Kiawah Island, S.C., one at the Ocean Course, a tournament hosted by North Carolina State with Kennesaw in the field, and one in Scottsdale, Ariz., along with Georgia Tech and Georgia State. Augusta also plays at Isleworth in Orlando.
Mercer opened its 2015 Fall schedule with a tie for second in Myrtle Beach, but the Bears were not competitive for the remainder of their 2015-16 schedule. The team returns almost its entire roster including a quartet of Georgians, three of whom are sophomores.
McDonough senior Austin Connelly made seven starts last season, sharing team medalist honors in the Southern Conference Championship with Cumming’s Brennan Bogdanovich, who started in the team’s last eight tournaments as a freshman.
Starting the team’s last five tournaments in the Spring as a freshman was Eatonton’s Hayes Rule, who finished just behind Connelly and Bogdanovich in the conference championship.
Stanton Schorr of Columbus also made four starts as a freshman and returns along with junior Jerry Ren, who started all 11 tournaments with a pair of top 10s, and senior Sean Smothers, who started in all but one of Mercer’s 2015-16 events.
The Bears don’t venture outside the South this Fall, playing twice in Kentucky and once each in South Carolina and Tennessee before closing out their 2016 schedule in Kennesaw’s event at Pinetree.