The Hot Springs Country Club welcomes 17 men's golf teams from five states today for Henderson State's annual Battle of the Belt tournament.
This year's event is also serves as the Central/Midwest Region Preview as Henderson will host the 2019 NCAA Division II Central/Midwest Regional Championship in May on the Hot Springs Country Club's Arlington Course.
"This will be one of the strongest fields we face all fall," said Forrest Schultz, Henderson's director of golf. "We have 17 teams total, a majority from within our region and a few from outside of the region."
The Reddies have won the Great American Conference Men's Golf Championships tournament five years in a row, including the most recent edition in April at the Hot Springs Country Club.
"It's great," Schultz said. "Hot Springs Country Club is a fantastic venue and it provides our teams to practice and play on championship conditions.
"We preach confidence all year to our players, but I am sure they will have an extra boost playing here this week. We are excited for the event and looking forward to the challenge."
Other members of the GAC competing this week include Arkansas Tech, Harding, Northwestern Oklahoma State, Oklahoma Baptist, Southern Arkansas, Southern Nazarene and Southwestern Oklahoma State.
Participants from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association include Central Missouri, Central Oklahoma, Lincoln University of Missouri, Lindenwood, Missouri Southern State and Northeastern State.
The field also includes other NCAA Division II schools Delta State in Mississippi, member of the Gulf South Conference, and Maryville in Missouri, a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Patriots from the University of Texas at Tyler will step up in competition from the American Southwest Conference from the NCAA's Division III.
Henderson returns all five members from its 2018 GAC championship team.
Sophomore Trey DePriest, out of Buffalo Island Central in Monette, placed fifth in April to earn GAC All-Tournament honors. Junior Nick Shapiro, of Plano, Texas, placed sixth, while Lakeside alum Cameron McRae, a senior, placed 10th. Redshirt sophomore Mitchell Ford, out of Little Rock Catholic, and senior Kevin Boutier, from Montrouge, France, rounded out the championship team in 13th and 16th.
The Reddies began the fall season with a fourth-place finish in September at the Central Missouri Mule Invitational. They placed eighth out of 18 teams the following week at the 20th annual Northeastern State University Golf Classic in Muskogee, Okla., before a two-week break.
"We have started off solid in our first two events, Schultz said. "We definitely are looking to play more consistently throughout an entire event."
Teams took part in a practice round on Saturday. The first round is planned for today with the second round scheduled for Monday and the final round on Tuesday.
Sports on 09/30/2018