-The Chattanooga Mocs men’s golf team heads east into the Smoky Mountains for tournament No. 2 on the 2022-23 season. The J.T. Poston Invitational awaits as the Mocs sprinter brings the defending champion home to the Country Club of Sapphire Valley.
Sophomore Braedon Wear was impressive in claiming win No. 1 of his college career there a year ago. He opened with twin 66s on the 36-hole Monday and closed with a level-par 71 for a 2-stroke victory at 10 under. It marked back-to-back wins for Mocs in the event following A.J.
Lintunen’s triumph in 2020 leading the squad to the team title.
Wear’s joined in the lineup by juniors Paul Conroy, Samuel Espinosa and John Houk as well as sophomore Garrett Engle. The Mocs are coming off a 24-under performance at the season opening Streamsong Invitational. The quintet traveling this week is a combined 29 under for the campaign.
“Really excited about the opportunity ahead for us this week,” Coach Blaine Woodruff explained. “Both Paul and Braedon have experience here so they’ll be able to pass along how best to attack this course. We had our first barometer down in Florida. Each player really got an idea of what they needed to work on to be ready to go this week.
“I think we did a good job as a team addressing those things in practice. We qualified a bunch at home, so this is a very hungry group to get out there and compete.”
Monday’s 36-hole day is a 9 a.m., shotgun start. The guys begin on holes 7-9 paired with Elon and Kennesaw State. The final 18 concludes the event on Tuesday.
J.T. Poston Invite
Sept. 26-27 (Mon-Tue) | Sapphire, N.C.
Lineup
Samuel Espinosa: 68.00
Garrett Engle: 70.00
John Houk: 69.33
Paul Conroy: 72.67
Braedon Wear: 70.67