ATLANTA, Ga. — The Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels return to host the Jekyll Island Collegiate Invitational later this month, looking to repeat last year’s win.
In March 2024, with the Pine Lakes Course undergoing an extensive renovation, Head Coach Jim Owen loaded up the men’s half of the field and moved 150 players, 50 coaches and the entire 24th edition of the Jekyll Island Collegiate to the King and Prince resort on St. Simons Island. The result of the one-year displacement was a win for the Petrels.
“The first win at Jekyll in 16 years for Oglethorpe and wasn’t even on Jekyll ironically,” Coach Owen said. “You love to win your home, albeit away from home, tournament, and we did win three of the first eight of them, but as the field strengthened beyond that of the national tournament or any regular season event, it got increasingly tough to win. If you finish 10th of the 30 teams you are likely the 10th or 11th best in the nation. A step further if you finish a usually disappointing 15th of 30 at Jekyll, you are almost assuredly top 20 nationally. Hard to be disappointed in a top 20 rank.”
Oglethorpe returns four of the five starting players that won last March. The 24th annual Jekyll Collegiate saw the Petrels fire rounds of 297, 278 and 295 to total 870 and earn a five-stroke win over runner-up Carnegie Mellon. Jackson Hiller finished third with rounds of 71, 73 and a spectacular closing 68. Beck Lewis was T7, Sam Karman T39 and Ryan Dunn rounded out the returning foursome that won last year.
“We will have our work cut out for us to defend this year,” continued Owen. “The field has incredible depth and includes 15 of the top 19 teams. If I take it even further it’s 17 of the top 24 and 22 of the top 50.”
The top five teams according to the latest Clippd Scoreboard national rankings are all set to unseat Oglethorpe: No. 1 Washington & Lee, No. 2 Methodist, No. 3 Illinois Wesleyan, No. 4 Sewanee and No. 5 Emory. The Stormy Petrels are ranked No. 6, Carnegie Mellon at No. 9 and Huntingdon rounds out the top 10.
Pine Lakes has renovated, refreshed and refurbished every piece of grass on the course, improving the beautiful fairways, greens and especially their bunkering.
“It looks fabulous and will bring out the best in the collegians in 2025,” Owen concluded.
The invitational begins Friday, March 21, at 8 a.m. and run through Sunday, March 23.