They'll continue wearing school colors and cover their drivers with mini-mascots, but Seth Brandon, Jonathan Hodge, Matt Hughes and Adam Mitchell will never play for their universities again.

Their accomplished college careers are over.

The four representatives of the Chattanooga area have played for national championships, won conference team titles and received individual All-America status.

"It's a tribute to everybody in the Chattanooga area for making golf a big deal," Alabama coach Jay Seawell said. "Rarely do you see four guys from an area that good graduate in one year.

"They all have a chance to chase that dream."

Hughes spent the last four years playing for Alabama and began his professional career last week in Texas.

Brandon will remain an amateur and finish his degree at Indiana University in the fall. Hodge, who played for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Mitchell who played at McCallie before starring for Georgia, will retain their amateur status for the summer leading up to PGA Tour qualifying school.

"That's an awfully strong group to come out at one time from this area," UTC coach Mark Guhne said. "That's one heck of a foursome. I wouldn't want to play against it."

Hoosier hysteria: Seth Brandon

Brandon visited a variety of colleges throughout the Midwest and Southeast before settling on Indiana. One of his choices was South Carolina, which had a head coach, Bill McDonald, who like Brandon grew up in Dalton.

McDonald had already built the Gamecocks into a one of the nation's premier teams, but the Hoosiers had little history. Brandon wanted to be part of something new and exciting.

"It's not all that normal for a Midwestern school to recruit somebody as talented as Seth from the South," IU coach Mike Mayer said. "When he joined our program we had made a couple of splashes and were on the fringe of being good. With Seth and his class, we really made great strides and he was a part of that. He has as much talent as any student-athlete I've had to work with."

That includes All-American Jorge Campillo, now trying his luck on the European Tour.

"The difference between good and great is not that much," Brandon said. "The next level is within reach, and I want to get to the PGA Tour."

After completing his degree requirements, he plans to make the Chattanooga area his home base for the early part of his professional career.

"I feel that staying amateur and competing in high-level amateur events, instead of entry-level pro stuff, could be more beneficial to me and getting myself noticed," Brandon said. "The goal is to make some money and notch my way up to financial independence until I'm on the Nationwide Tour and then the PGA Tour."

Elevating expectations: Jonathan Hodge

Hodge broke down and cried a bit following the Mocs' final tournament of the 2007-08 season because he felt UTC failed to achieve its seasonlong goal -- reaching the NCAA championship. The Mocs did not advance out of the NCAA East Regional despite playing on their home course.

Hodge helped put them there in the first place.

UTC had never even sniffed the NCAA championship tournament before Hodge arrived on campus from Jefferson City.

He helped take the Mocs to the top ranking in the country last fall and ushered the Mocs to the NCAA championship tournament at Inverness this past spring.

"I would say that I didn't do it by myself," Hodge said. "Even though I may have been shooting the best scores, everybody on the team was getting better.

"There was no shoes to fill, pretty much."

Before too long, the Mocs were competing in nationally recognized tournaments and placing in the middle of the pack before breaking through last fall at the Carpet Capital Collegiate -- the most significant regular-season victory in UTC program history.

"Without Jonathan coming in, we wouldn't have been good enough to accomplish the things we did starting his sophomore year starting with the SoCon championship," Guhne said. "I don't think we'd be halfway to where we are if Jon hadn't come to school here."

Hodge said he will remain an amateur player through the summer, and depending on his success at tournaments such as this week's Dogwood Invitational and the U.S. Amateur, he'll decide whether to attempt PGA Tour qualifying school.

"I'm sure it won't sink in that it's over until that first tournament and I won't be going," Hodge said. "I don't have a set plan. We'll see how it goes."

Homemade career: Matt Hughes

Hughes bounced in and out of the Crimson Tide lineup until Seawell played a hunch that launched a career.

Seawell put Hughes in the lineup instead of Joseph Sykora (who is on the Nationwide Tour) for the 2007 Carpet Capital Collegiate. Hughes grew up in Dalton and considered The Farm Golf Club a home course.

Hughes birdied nine of his last 11 holes in the final round, including one in the team playoff won by the Tide.

"That tournament changed my whole career," Hughes said. "I was fighting for the last spot on the travel squad. And to have a day like that in Dalton, with 50-60 family and friends around, that's something I'll remember forever."

Alabama won the Southeastern Conference championship the next spring, another cherished college memory for Hughes.

"That's as big as it gets other than the national championship," Hughes said. "That's a bond you'll have with guys forever."

Hughes is the first golfer of this highlight 2009 Chattanooga class to turn professional. He missed the cut in his pro debut, a Hooters Tour event in Bentonville, Texas.

Seawell said Hughes has just as good a chance at a successful pro career as any other in this foursome.

"If he'll be resilient like he has been and learn from the experience of being a professional, I think he's got a chance to make it," Seawell said. "Every time it looked like he wouldn't be one of our top five, he beat who he needed to.

"He needs to get better, but he's always risen above the bar."

Continuing tradition: Adam Mitchell

Mitchell celebrated his academic and golfing career like any good four-time All-American -- with five days in the Bahamas.

Yes, he took his golf clubs.

"It was the first vacation I've had since my freshman year," Mitchell said while driving home from the Atlanta airport. "It's so weird that it's already over. It's shocking. I feel like yesterday I was just graduating with McCallie. Now I'm done with Georgia and my youth is over."

His golfing days are clearly going to continue, but he'll put a pro career on hold for a bit. After all, he reached the semifinals of the 2008 U.S. Amateur.

"I'm going to start trying to make that Walker Cup team," Mitchell said. "I feel like I've got a good shot. If I did turn pro, I think I would regret it because I've got a chance to play in arguably the most prestigious tournament in amateur golf."

Most of the 10-man Walker Cup team will be announced shortly before the U.S. Amateur, which will be held Aug. 24-30 at Southern Hills in Tulsa.

"I got a good foundation set last summer and I've got five or six tournaments this summer," Mitchell said. "If I play well, I think I've got a good shot."

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