Thirteen men's golf teams are set to tee off Sunday morning as the 2017 C-USA Men's Golf Championship gets underway at the Texarkana Country Club. The championship consists of 54 holes of stroke play on the par 72, 6,969-yard course over three days, finishing up Tuesday.
Following the results of stroke play, the top four teams will advance to a seeded match play round to be held on Wednesday. The team champion after match play will receive C-USA's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals.
Seeding is based on the current Golfstat rankings, making Middle Tennessee this year's top seed. The Blue Raiders will tee off hole No. 1, along with North Texas and UTEP at 9:20 a.m. The Blue Raiders earned the most C-USA Golfer of the Week honors this season with five and two of them came from freshman Chip Thomas.
UTEP's Frederik Dreier, the 2016 C-USA Golfer of the Year, leads the Miners in total top-10 finishes (six) and carded the lowest round on the squad (64) in the final round at the Price's Give 'Em Five Invitational.
Rice and UTSA start things off on the first tee at 8 a.m. Sunday. Junior Zander Lozano, a member of last year's C-USA All-Tournament Team, has continued his dominance for the Roadrunners by winning two tournaments and finishing in the top-10 in two others. Defending champion Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss and WKU will also tee off at 8 a.m. from No. 10.
The Bulldogs will look to be the first team since UCF (2009-11) to repeat as conference champions. The Hilltoppers' Billy Tom Sargent has had a standout year finishing in the top-10 five times and winning Kenny Perry Invitational and sharing the top spot at the Sam Hall Intercolliegate.
The 8:40 a.m. start on the first tee will feature a two-some of UAB and Charlotte. The Blazers will look to improve on last year's finish in the semifinals of match play. Rounding out C-USA teams in action will be Marshall, Florida Atlantic and Old Dominion with an 8:50 a.m. start from the No. 10 tee.