Coach Metts Interview (VIDEO) | Sargent Interview (VIDEO)
ATHENS, Ga. — After a terrific showing at Vanderbilt's Mason Rudolph Championship last week, WKU Hilltopper Golf concludes its regular season Monday at Georgia's Southern Intercollegiates.
The Southern Intercollegiates is a 36-hole, one-day event that dates back to 1935.
The current reboot of the tournament began in 2015. Past individual medalists include Wake Forest's Arnold Palmer in 1950, Oklahoma State's Bob Tway in 1979 and Centenary's Hal Sutton in 1980.
The first round is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. CT Monday at the par-72, 6,917-yard Athens Country Club. The final round will immediately follow at approximately 1 p.m.
Of the 17 teams in the field, WKU enters fourth in the Golfstat rankings.
Host Georgia is ranked 14th, while South Carolina is 17th. The Hilltoppers come in at No. 89, also behind No. 82 Kennesaw State.
WKU jumped 10 spots in the rankings last week after tying for fourth in a loaded Vanderbilt field. The Hilltoppers shot a 1-under 851 – their best 54-hole score since 2008 – and tied or ended up ahead of eight teams ranked ahead of them.
"A lot of the credit goes to those guys and the work ethic that they've had throughout the whole year," WKU head coach Chan Metts said. "It definitely starts with the guys on top. We've got a lot of good senior leadership, and those guys have set a really good example for the rest of the team."
The big push came from redshirt senior Billy Tom Sargent, who tied the program record with his fifth career title at the Mason Rudolph Championship.
Sargent tied for the second-lowest 54-hole score in program history with a 201 and finished ahead of 12 top-100 golfers, including six in the top 35.
He earned his sixth career Conference USA Golfer of the Week award as a result.
Sargent, senior Stuart Easton, redshirt junior Linus Lo, junior Tom Bevington and sophomore Chase Landrum will represent the Hilltoppers on Monday in Georgia.
"I feel like our team is really starting to click and playing really good golf," Sargent said. "I think any tournament we play in, we've got a pretty good shot. We've got a lot of guys shooting good scores right now with a lot of consistency."
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