The Dalton State men's golf team pauses before their Monday morning practice round at the NAIA National Championship
Daytona Beach, Fla. – After a practice round on Monday, the 64th Annual National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Men’s Golf National Championship is set to begin Tuesday morning with four rounds scheduled to go each day through Friday.
Monday was a humid, yet beautiful day, for golf Monday at the Ladies Professional Golf Association International Course just off I-95.
The weather is much more tenuous as the tournament draws nearer.
The 156-player field consists of 21 automatic qualifying teams, seven at-large teams, Embry-Riddle (the host school) and a number of individual qualifiers.
The two Southern States Athletic Conference representatives are scheduled to tee-off early Tuesday and that’s a good thing. There are a 20-30% of showers and thundershowers in the afternoon forecast.
Defending national champions and current No. 1 Ranked Coastal Georgia starts on the first hole at 7:30 a.m. The Mariners are paired with the University of Victoria (British Columbia) and Marian (Ind.).
Dalton State follows at around 8:20. The Roadrunners were paired with Oklahoma City and with Davenport (Mich.). William Woods (Mo.), Webber International (Fla.) and St. Francis (Ill.) tee-off at around 9:10 a.m.
A group of nine individual golfers will tee-off Tuesday at 7:50 a.m. on the tenth hole. They will be followed at 9 a.m. by the University of British Columbia (Okanagan, B.C.), Concordia (Ore.) and The Master’s College (Santa Claritas, Calif.)
Tuesday afternoon tee times begin at 12 p.m. Tennessee Wesleyan (Athens, Tn.) Wayland Baptist (the Wiley, Texas school Roadrunner basketball faced in the first round of the NAIA tournament) and Northwestern (Iowa) are paired on No. 1.
They are followed at 12:50 p.m. with Johnson & Wales (Fla.), Bethany (Kan.) and Point Park (Pa.) followed by Embry-Riddle (Fla.), Texas Wesleyan and Lewis-Clark State (Idaho).
Tuesday’s afternoon action on the tenth hole begins at 12:30 p.m. when USC Beaufort (S.C.), Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and Jamestown N.D.) are scheduled to begin. They will be follow at around 1:20 p.m. by Grand View (Iowa), Bellevue (Neb.) and five individual golfers.
Most of us are familiar with the afternoon thunderstorms that quickly pop-up in Florida and, just as quickly, clear out. At this writing, Wednesday’s forecast seems to be a bit more than that.
The National Weather Service is calling for a slight chance of showers early, then partly sunny with a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon.
That could cause some delays for Dalton State golfers. They start times flip on Wednesday. The Roadrunners will begin on the tenth hole at 12:50 p.m. with Oklahoma State and Davenport (Mich.)
Third round pairings and times will not be released until after the first two rounds are completed. Friday’s times and pairings will be released Thursday.