Verona, NY – The Stetson men's golf team will make its 2022-23 season debut this weekend with a return to Turning Stone Resort and Casino in upstate New York for the Turning Stone Intercollegiate.
The event is hosted annually by the University of Missouri on the Kaluhyat Course, a Robert Trent Jones designed course that is one of three championship courses at the resort, which is located between Syracuse and Utica.
Stetson last played in the tournament in 2018, which was the same year Hatters coach
Danny Forshey took his Bethune-Cookman squad to play. Forshey led his Wildcats to a third-place finish that year while Stetson finished 12
th in an 18-team field.
"I remember going to Turning Stone that year and I know it is a really nice facility," Forshey said.
History won't play a part in how the 2022-23 Hatters perform in their opening event, or any others. Stetson has five newcomers on the roster this year, and four of them will be competing in this first event. Only sophomore
Truman Keppy, who had a team-best 73.36 scoring average last year, is among the top five for the first event. Junior
Mason Quagliata, who was second among the regulars last year with a 75.11 average, will also play in the event as an individual.
"We have had some really good competition for qualifying, with four or five guys right in the thick of things for that fifth spot," Forshey said. "The problem was that we kept getting rained out. We had our last five qualifying rounds cut short, so I had to make a judgement call. Mason was four under par on Wednesday when we got hit with the weather after 11 holes and I felt like he had earned a chance to play."
Stetson will be led into the tournament by junior
John Houchin, a transfer from Eastern Florida State College where he had a 73.34 scoring average over two seasons and was twice selected as a Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-American scholar. Over the summer he tied for eighth at the Florida Amateur Public Links Championship.
"John has been playing really well," Forshey said. "He shot a 64 recently at LPGA and is regularly in the 60s."
Behind Houchin is junior transfer
Javier Calles Roman. A native of Madrid, Spain, Calles came to Stetson from Nova Southeastern where he completed his sophomore season ranked as one of the top 25 players in the nation in Division II.
Graduate transfer
Cameron Henry will be in the No. 4 spot for this first event. A Los Gatos, Calif., native spent four seasons as a member of the golf team at USC before enrolling at Stetson for graduate school. He had a 74.93 stroke average for the Trojans last year.
Junior
Matt Gauntlett rounds out the starting five for this first event. A native of Watford, England, Gauntlett was teammates with Houchin at Eastern Florida State College, posting a 73.1 scoring average last year.
"The best part about this group is that the team chemistry is phenomenal," Forshey said. "They like each other, they hang out together, and they are super competitive. Everyone is pushing each other to keep getting lower scores in order to get on the bus."
Forshey is excited to see how the team will fare in an event that includes some quality players. In addition to the host team from Missouri, which finished the 2021-22 season ranked 45
th in the country out of the Southeastern Conference, the field includes teams from Boston College, Delaware, George Mason, Sacred Heart, Towson, Louisiana, Mount St. Mary's, Niagara and St. Francis (Pa.).
Missouri won the tournament in 2018 when the Hatters last competed in the event and the Tigers have finished in the top three in the tournament every year since it was inaugurated in 2009. Missouri rallied from 11 shots off the lead last year with a final round score of 282 to finish 17-under par to beat LSU by two shots. North Carolina won the tournament in 2019 with an incredible 42-under par score of 822.
"I just want to keep seeing what I have seen so far in qualifying," Forshey said. "This is a hungry bunch. If I continue to see what we have been seeing in qualifying, I think we will be happy with that."
The players will play a practice round on the course on Saturday before opening 36 holes of competition on Sunday morning with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. Monday's final round of play will also begin with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.
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