GAC Golf Championship returns to HSCC today

The Great American Conference Golf Championships return to Hot Springs Country Club today after a year that they were scheduled to be played in Duncan, Okla.

The GAC was looking to expand the tournament into Oklahoma for the first time in league history with a single-year agreement to play the men’s tournament at Territory Golf and Country Club and the women’s tournament at Duncan Golf and Tennis Club. Due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down all sports in March of 2020, the league did not play its tournament.

With the return of the tournament to the Park and Arlington courses, the top golfers from the league will descend on the Spa City with the first round of golfers teeing off this morning at 8 a.m.

Arkansas Tech’s women enter today’s tournament as the favorites to win as the top-ranked team in the Central Region and ranked by GolfStat.com as the No. 26 team in the country.

Sophomore Jaqueline Klemm, who picked up her sixth career GAC Golfer of the Week award, leads the Golden Suns, having finished tied for third in the tournament as a freshman with a 7-over 223. Klemm’s performance two seasons ago earned her the league’s Freshman of the Year award, and she has five top-10 finishes this season, including last week’s six-stroke win at the Central Region Preview where she shot a even-par 144.

Classmate Katie Whitfield has three top-10 finishes this season, including a 3-over 219 win in the Henderson State University Spring Invite last month at HSCC. Whitfield shot a 3-over 219 with three straight rounds of 1-over 73.

HSU, which has been ranked seventh in the Central Region all season, is looking for its first GAC Championship since 2014. The Reddies finished third in the 2019 tournament, but the team sports just one player with post-season experience in Taylor Loeb, a graduate student in her final year of eligibility with just one top-10 finish this year in the HSU Spring Invitational.

Lakeside graduate Gracen Blount transferred to HSU from the University of Central Arkansas after her freshman season and has three top-10 finishes this season, including finishing third at the HSU Spring Invitational behind Whitfield and Klemm. The sophomore is averaging 6-over par in 15 rounds this season with an average round score of 77.33.

Southwestern Oklahoma State is currently ranked sixth in the region after finishing third at the Central Region Preview last week, led by Megan Brown and Mikaela Rindermann. Harding sits ninth in the Central Region with Abbey Bryan and Brenda Sanchez leading the team.

Arkansas Tech and HSU are the top two teams entering the men’s tournament as the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the region. The Wonder Boys are currently ranked No. 4 nationally by GolfStat.com while the Reddies sit at No. 15, the only two GAC teams in the top 25, and the teams finished first and second, respectively, two years ago at the GAC Championships.

The Wonder Boys have not lost to another GAC team this season led by sophomore brothers Andre and Francois Jacobs, who finished first and third at the 2019 GAC Championships. The pair led the team to its second GAC title, but newcomers Santiago De La Fuente and Henry Frizzell have shown their mettle, each earning weekly golf awards from the league.

Returning just one player from its 2019 GAC runner-up finish, HSU is looking for its sixth league title since 2014, led by redshirt senior Mitchell Ford. Ford has five top-10 finishes this year, including a win in the Rattler Invitational with a 9-under

207 and a seventh-place finish last week at the NSU Classic with a 3-under 210.

Ford was tied for 13th as the team’s No. 3 golfer at the

2019 GAC Championships. Former White Hall standout Josh McNulty has earned the team’s No. 2 spot while redshirt sophomore Jackson Cole is the team’s No. 3.

Southern Arkansas, which finished sixth a year ago, is ranked No. 6 in the Central Region, only the second time in program history that the team has been ranked regionally. The Muleriders came out of the 2019 GAC Championships as the No.

3 team in the region. SAU’s Kade Johnson and Roman Timmerman bring the team’s only post-season experience into the tournament, having finished 32nd and tied for

18th, respectively, two years ago. Johnson drops to the team’s No.

4 slot with Caleb Miller, a freshman from Cabot, taking over the top spot. Miller finished second at last week’s NSU Classic with a 1-over par on the second playoff hole.