A busy week for Chattanooga Mocs golf teed off Tuesday morning with the announcement of the All-Southern Conference and All-Freshman squads. Three Mocs earned All-SoCon, all returners from last year's honorees, while one captured All-Freshman status.
Seniors John Houk, Paul Conroy and Samuel Espinosa as well as freshman Ward Harris made their way to the proverbial podium.
The trio have led the resurgence of the program nationally and are positioned for more good news Wednesday afternoon.
Houk has three runner-up finishes in 2023-24 and five top 3s thus far. He is 30 under for the season, 34 under for his career. No Moc has completed a career under par.
Conroy became the third student-athlete in school history with 60+ par or better 18s last week at the SoCon Championships. His 61 joins PGA TOUR winner Stephan Jaeger '12 (69) & Jonathan Hodge '09 (64). He got his second career win at Furman in the fall.
Espinosa has a win this season capturing the opener at Erin Hills at the Marquette Intercollegiate. That field included multiple top 25 teams as well as two top 50 players in the WORLD Amateur Golf Rankings.
That trio was nearly a quintet. Juniors
Garrett Engle and
Braedon Wear just missed the 10-person cutoff. Engle had one of the best finishes on the squad with his top 10 at the Western Intercollegiate, while Wear had one five runner-up finishes for the Mocs this season.
Harris made five starts while making seven total appearances in 2023-24. His best score was 5-under 211 tying for 22nd against a good field at the Colleton River Collegiate in one of the team's five runner-up finishes to go with two wins. His best finish in a start was a tie for 20th at the Steelwood Collegiate, another second-place for the team.
Harris made his first start in the season opening win at Marquette. He had one top 10, a seventh place ending as an individual at the Battle at Barnsley in nearby Adairsville.
When you have five knocking on the door for all-conference honors, it stands to reason that the NCAA Championships Selection Show is must-see TV. The Mocs, currently ranked 38th in the nation, have their site set on one of six possible locations:
The University of Texas Golf Club | Austin, TX (Texas, host)
University Club | Baton Rouge, LA (LSU, host)
UNC Finley Golf Course | Chapel Hill, NC (UNC, host)
The Farms Golf Club | Rancho Santa Fe, CA (San Diego, host)
Stanford Golf Course | Stanford, CA (Stanford, host)
Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex | West Lafayette, IN (Purdue, host)
Eighty-one teams and 45 individuals embark May 13-15 at those regional sites to reach the finals. The top five teams and top individual on a non-advancing program move on to Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., May 24-29.
The Mocs have nine previous team entries and 13 overall with four individuals making appearances. The program moved on to the finals five times:
1993: Neil Connolly, MC
2009: Team, 18th
2012: Team, 18th
2014: Chris Robb, T15 (All-America)
2023: Team, T23
All five members of last year's NCAA Championships squad are back: Houk, Conroy, Espinosa, Wear & Engle. The alternate for this season is junior Dalton Chuba, a Chattanooga native.
2023-24 Southern Conference Player of the Year
Mats Ege, R-Sr., ETSU
2023-24 Southern Conference Co-Freshman of the Year
Kelvin Hernandez, UNCG
Jenson Forrester, ETSU
2023-24 Southern Conference Coach of the Year
Jake Amos, ETSU
2023-24 All-Southern Conference Team
Paul Conroy, Sr., Chattanooga
Samuel Espinosa, Sr., Chattanooga
John Houk, Sr., Chattanooga
Matthew Dodd-Berry, So., ETSU
Mats Ege, R-Sr., ETSU
Algot Kleen, Jr., ETSU
Harris Barth, So., Furman
Tobias Jonsson, Sr., Mercer
Symon Balbin, Sr., UNCG
Randall Hudson, Sr., UNCG
2023-24 All-Freshman Team
Ward Harris, Chattanooga
Kelvin Hernandez, UNCG
Jenson Forrester, ETSU
Taylor Kuehn, Samford
Jace Butcher, Western Carolina