Men’s Golf Heads to Pelican State for Fourth Tournament of Fall

Live Scoring | Monday Pairings

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – After a three-week break from competition, the Stephen F. Austin men's golf team will return to the links for competition and continue its fall schedule of tournaments this week at Louisiana Tech's 2018 Jim Rivers Intercollegiate, held Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 15-16 in Choudrant, Louisiana.

The Format
The two-day, 54-hole tournament, now in its 14th year of existence, features two continuous rounds of play Monday with the third and final round taking place Tuesday morning. Both days will begin with an 8 a.m. CST shotgun start.

The Course
Held at Squire Creek Country Club, the par-72 course is comprised of 7,070 yards of greens and was designed by Tom Fazio. It was ranked as one of the top 10 best new courses in America by Golf Digest in 2004 and is characterized by a gentle rolling plain.

The Tournament Field
A total of 15 teams will be taking part in the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate, including six fellow Southland Conference member programs, tournament host Louisiana Tech, the Southeastern Conference's Georgia, the American Athletic Conference's Cincinnati, Conference USA's Middle Tennessee, UAB and Southern Mississippi, the Sun Belt Conference's Troy and NAIA Oklahoma City University. In addition to the Lumberjacks, Abilene Christian, Central Arkansas, Lamar, New Orleans, Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana will be representing the Southland in the Pelican State. The tournament field proves to be challenging as Georgia is ranked No. 13 nationally according to the latest Golfweek rankings, while Cincinnati (53rd) and UAB (97th) are also ranked among the top 100 teams in the country.

The Lineup
SFA's lineup will look much different than it has so far this fall after strong performances in practice by redshirt sophomore Austin McKinney and sophomore Justin Benson. Both McKinney, who redshirted this past spring, and Benson, a transfer from Midland College, will be making their Lumberjack debuts as senior Angelo Leyvani, sophomore Steven Fabik and senior Jake Hendrix highlight the five-man lineup. Freshman Isiah Henderson will also be competing as an individual at the two-day tournament.

Tee Times
The Lumberjacks have been paired with ACU, UCA and Lamar for Monday's first and second rounds of play. Teeing off at 8 a.m. CST, Leyvani will begin on hole 10, while Fabik will start on hole 11, Hendrix on hole 12, McKinney off of hole 13 and Benson hole 14. Henderson is paired with golfers from New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana and Oklahoma City and will tee off Monday morning from hole 18.

Last Time Out
At the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational in Erie, Colorado, Sept. 24-25, SFA shot a 46-over 910 across three rounds of play and finished 15th out of 16 teams. It was the Lumberjacks' lowest placement of the 2017-18 season after beginning the year with a second-place tie at the Golfweek Program Challenge in South Carolina. Despite a 38th-place tie at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, Leyvani is off to a strong start to his senior season. He leads SFA with a 71.22 scoring average through nine rounds of golf and has already turned in a pair of top-10 finishes, including a tie for fourth at the Golfweek Program Challenge. In five of his first six rounds played this fall, Leyvani carded a score at par or better. Both Hendrix (73.00) and Fabik (73.56) have been SFA's second and third-leading golfers, each notching a top-20 finish at the Golfweek Program Challenge.

Up Next…
The 'Jacks will wrap up their fall tournament slate next week in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Little Rock Invitational, held Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 22-23 at the Chenal Country Club.

Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Lumberjack golf throughout the fall.

-SFA-

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Men’s Golf Heads to Pelican State for Fourth Tournament of Fall

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Players Mentioned

Justin Benson

Steven Fabik

Isiah Henderson

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Angelo Leyvani

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