ORANGEBURG, S.C. --- The Tusculum University men's golf team will be competing this week at the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Championship. The three-day, 54-hole tournament is being held at the Orangeburg Country Club and hosted by Newberry College.
The Pioneers, under the guidance of head coach Hunter Chandley, have finished first or second in four tournaments this season including team titles at the King Invitational and the Bob Dibble Intercollegiate. TU's runner-up finishes have come at the Limestone Fall Invitational and at the Ralph Hargett Memorial last month.
Senior Dominic Barron Holden will lead the Orange & Black into this year's league championship event. His 72.42 scoring average is the fourth-lowest in program history and just ahead of his sophomore year where he posted a 72.67 average in the 2021-2022 campaign. This season, he has recorded three top-10 finishes including a runner-up performance at the Dibble Intercollegiate.
Holden (Kendal, England) has amassed 10 rounds at par or better including seven sub-par performances including a season-best 67 in the final round of the Dibble Intercollegiate. The 2021 All-SAC pick has shot in the 60s on five occasions this season. His career average of 72.81 is the second-lowest in program history, while his 17 career sub-par rounds has in fifth-place in the TU record book.
This will be Holden's third SAC Championship appearance and first since 2022 when tied for sixth place to earn SAC All-Tournament laurels as he fired a career-best 66.
Senior Blake Williams (Lone Tree, Colo.) will be making his inaugural appearance at the SAC Championship this week. Williams has a 72.55 scoring average which is second on the squad this year. He has competed in eight events and is tied for the team-lead with five top-20 finishes including three times in the top-10 and twice in the top-five.
Williams tied for fifth place at the Walters State Fall Classic as well as the Hargett Memorial. He enters this week with a 73.63 career average.
Rookie Morgan Cain (Cork, Ireland) was named the SAC Freshman of the Year as his 72.88 scoring average is the lowest ever posted by a TU freshman. He leads the team with 15 rounds at par or better including seven times under par. The 2024 All-SAC second team choice has recorded five top-10 finishes including three times in the top-five. He tied for runner-up honors in his collegiate debut at the King Invitational where he posted a four-under par total of 66-70=136. He finished second at last month's Hargett Memorial where he shot a 70-71-66=207 (-9). His 207 score is the third-lowest 54-hole total in TU history.
Sophomore Cole Haygood (Ponce Inlet, Fla.) also has a 72.88 stroke average which is tied with Cain for third on the team. Haygood has been credited with four top-20 performances which includes three times in the top-10 and twice in the top-five. He finished fourth at the Hargett Memorial with 73-69-72=214 and fifth at the Dibble Intercollegiate with 71-69-71=211. This will be Haygood's first trip to the SAC Championship.
Rounding out Tusculum's starting five this week is veteran Isak Holter (Trondheim, Norway). Holter will be making his third trip to the SAC Championship. The senior owns a 74.95 scoring average this year which includes two top-10 performances, finishing sixth at the King Invitational (70-68=138) and 10th at the Dibble Intercollegiate (71-74-70=215).
Tusculum will be vying for its second SAC Championship with the first coming in 2015. The Pioneers have also recorded three runner-up finishes (2005, 2007, 2011) at the league tournament and finished fifth at last year's event.
