Georgia Tech golfer Olli Schniederjans, left, watches as University of North Carolina golfer Bailey Patrick hits a shot from the fairway on Hole 10 during the final-round of the 2013 Carpet Capital Collegiate.Fore!
The Mocs are on the tee.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's golf team begins it season today in the Carpet Capital Collegiate at The Farm Golf Club in Rocky Face, Ga. The tournament has been called the Masters of college golf.
"I've heard that there's one or two or a million good teams playing there," UTC coach Mark Guhne said. "We need to go down there and play solid golf and get us off to a good start for season."
In Guhne's tenure the Mocs have been ranked as high as No. 1 in the country. That accomplishment happened in 2008 after UTC won the Carpet Capital.
These Mocs are far from No. 1. They're not ranked in the GolfWeek top 30 preseason poll.
"We're so young," Guhne said. "We're playing one senior, three sophomores and a freshman.
"In a way, it's kind of nice to be under the radar and just play golf."
The field at the Farm is stacked with ranked teams -- and the defending national champion, Alabama. There are five schools from the Southeastern Conference, five from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The No. 1 ranked amateur in the world will be there, too: Ollie Schniederjans, who plays for Georgia Tech.
"We've built a program to the point where we want to be in the spotlight every year," said Guhne, whose team failed to reach the national championship tournament last season.
"Hopefully it will take a little pressure off of us," he added. "In a way, it's kind of nice to be under the radar and we can just play golf."
That's OK with the players. UTC will have Andrew Weathers, Ewan Scot, Wes Gosselin, Zac Stolz and Liam Johnston playing for the blue-and-gold this weekend. The tournament runs through Sunday, and admission is free.
"It's going to be exciting," said Weathers, a redshirt freshman who remembers watching the Mocs play in this tournament several years ago. "I can't wait. It's been a dream to play college golf."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-747-6484. Follow him at duchiyamaCTFP.