The Honors Course logo popped out from the crisp black shirt of Tim Burns as he chatted with University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golf coach Mark Guhne.
The two friends talked for a few minutes before Guhne returned to the putting green with freshman Steven Fox for a quick lesson.
“Good luck in San Diego,” Burns told the fifth-year coach. “We really hope you make it back home.”
Burns wasn’t the only one who wished Guhne and his team good wishes during the Signal Mountain Invitational. The Mocs will have the Chattanooga golfing community rooting for them during their NCAA Southwest Regional at Carlton Oaks Golf Course.
A top-five finish will allow them to compete for an NCAA championship at the course created for amateur golf by Chattanooga philanthropist Jack Lupton, who died Sunday.
“There’s obviously a little pressure to get back home,” UTC senior Derek Rende said. “We know that. We can’t think about that. We have to go out there and stay in the moment. I would love to be at the Honors.”
The Mocs, ranked No. 39 by GolfWeek, received the No. 7 seed in their regional, which means that to advance they’ll need to leapfrog California and San Diego State, according to seeding.
Oregon, UNLV, Augusta State and Tennessee are the top four seeds in order at Carlton Oaks, and Southern Miss senior Paul Apyan from Hixson will be there as well, playing as an individual and hanging out with the Mocs.
The Honors Course hosted the 1996 NCAA tournament when Tiger Woods won as an individual and Arizona State captured the team title. Back then the Mocs were nowhere near the national elite, so there was no reason to expect them at Ooltewah.
But Guhne has taken the Mocs as high as No. 1 in fall rankings during his tenure. And UTC was the host for the 2008 East Regional at Council Fire Golf Club, where the pressure contributed to the team’s failure to advance to the championship.
This year the pressure is to get back home.
“We really wanted to play good at home, at Council Fire, in front of everybody and there was the pressure of getting to the finals for the first time, and qualifiers are difficult at any level,” Guhne said. “It’s nice that we can just go play golf and try to get back to the Honors.”
Should the Mocs make it home for the last tournament and stay in NCAA-provided hotel rooms, they would be long shots to win.
“Once we get to the finals, the pressure is off and we can just play because we wouldn’t be looking at us like (No. 1) Oklahoma State, Oregon or Stanford,” Guhne said. “We could come in under the radar and do some damage.
“Once you get to the finals, like we did last year, the pressure is off and it’s time to play golf.”
The five UTC players headed to sunny San Diego are seniors Rende, Fredrik Qvicker and J.T. Clendenin, sophomore Stephan Jaeger and freshman Fox.
All but Fox know the pressure of an NCAA regional and the other four know about playing in the finals, because they did so last year by getting through a regional and playing for the championship at Inverness Golf Club.
“I would love to come back and play at the Honors,” Clendenin said. “The first thing we have to do is get through regional. We have to focus on the regional before we can think about nationals.”