Men's golf team back, ready for national championship tournament

The Eastern Florida State College men's golf team is looking forward to returning to the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament next week.

Four of the five golfers are returning to the national tournament and looking to improve on last year's finish as they return to Texas next week to compete for a national title.

"We know that it is going to be a dogfight no matter what tournament we show up to, but we are starting to come around and play our best golf," said Drew Lanier who played in last year's tournament and tied for ninth overall at the district tournament. "We are using what we learned last year at the national tournament to make sure we are playing our best this year."

The Titans will compete in the national tournament May 10-13 at the Odessa Country Club in Odessa, Texas. Eastern Florida State College finished second in the District 4 Championship in Cullman, Alabama to qualify for the national tournament.

"It was a good week overall, as a team it was not what we wanted but we all had at least one good round so it shows that when we play well, we can beat anyone," said John Houchin who placed fourth in the district tournament. "We had the first-round lead but the conditions got a bit tougher and It was hard to close it out but we have confidence that we still finished second without playing our best golf and could have won the tournament. I think we are all pretty confident with our games right now and we will take a lot away from this past week."

Eastern Florida State College is No. 5 in the latest Bushnell/Golfweek NJCAA Division I Men's Golf Coaches Poll and will be in the national tournament for the 19^th straight season.

"Going 19 straight seasons just means that we are supposed to be there, when you do it 19 times in a row, it shows that it is not a lucky accident," said Matt Gauntlett who tied for fifth in the district tournament. "We have definitely been close and we have a strong team this year, so hoping we have what it takes to be there at the end."