UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – While the Penn State men's golf team begins Big Ten Match Play this weekend in Palm Coast, Florida, the weekend is a good test as the spring portion of the 2019-20 schedule provides plenty of challenges for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State men's golf coach Greg Nye, in his 28th year at Penn State and 36th year as a collegiate head coach, guides a 2019-20 squad comprised of two seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen. Five tournaments in the fall, with the Nittany Lions taking four top-five finishes, provided and collegiate experience for the newcomers.
Penn State will participate in two tournaments new to the Nittany Lions, the Gator Invitational Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 15-16, and the General Hackler Championship Monday-Tuesday, March 9-10. Those new events fit well with a return trip to the Linger Longer Invitational Friday-Sunday, March 20-22 at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Georgia and the Kepler Intercollegiate Saturday-Sunday, April 25-26 in Columbus, Ohio.
Following the five spring tournaments, the first postseason event takes place Friday-Sunday, May 1-3, with the Big Ten Conference Championships at Rich Harvest Farms Golf Club in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The golf course has played host to several major events and was the site of the 2017 NCAA Men's and Women's Golf Championships, the 2015 Western Amateur and 2014 NCAA Regional Championships.
Back-to-back trips to Florida for Penn State begin with Big Ten Match Play this weekend and the Nittany Lions return to the Sunshine State for their first-ever appearance in the Gator Invitational, Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 15-16. The event will be played on the Mark Bostick Golf Course on the University of Florida campus.
"The back to back trips to Florida was certainly by design," said Penn State men's golf coach Greg Nye. "We face a challenge in not being able to practice on golf courses in the north this time off year, so we string events together in the south. The Match Play has all Big Ten teams facing the same weather challenge so we have a level playing field. We will use this event and weekend which has us playing six rounds of golf to prepare for next week's Gator Invitational."
Another first for the Nittany Lions is the opportunity to play in the General Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The event, hosted by Coastal Carolina, provides another scenic, and challenging course in the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. The second tournament in March brings Penn State back to the Linger Longer Invitational for its third-straight event at Reynolds Lake Oconee.
"We would prefer to play the same tournaments and golf courses every year, but for multiple reasons that is not always possible," Nye said. "We go into the Gator and the Hackler having never played either golf course. While that is exciting and fresh, experience playing these golf courses can be a great advantage if you use your knowledge."
After a few weeks without competition, Penn State returns to action at its home tournament, the Rutherford Intercollegiate. The event will be contested for the 44th time Saturday-Sunday, April 18-19, with the Nittany Lions looking to defend their title for the sixth-straight year.
The final regular-season event of the spring is set for Saturday-Sunday, April 25-26. The weekend marks another familiar event for Penn State as it travels to the Kepler Invitational in Columbus, Ohio to compete on Ohio State's Scarlet Course.
Keep up to date with the latest information about the Nittany Lion Men's Golf team on Twitter at @PennStateMGolf and Facebook. Follow Coach Greg Nye on Instagram at @CoachNyePSU.
