Men’s Golf Set to Defend Schenkel Title
It’s Schenkel week in Statesboro.
Marc Gignac
3/11/2020
STATESBORO – In the long and illustrious history of the Georgia Southern men’s golf program, Brett Barron stands alone when it comes to the Schenkel Invitational.
With two consecutive second-place finishes followed by winning the team title last year, the Eagles are in the midst of the best run they have ever had in their 40-year-old home tournament. Now a senior, Barron has been in the lineup in each of the last three years and will tee it up again this Friday in the 41st edition of the tournament at Forest Heights Country Club.
Despite being a Georgia native, Barron, who hails from Suwanee, did not know much about the Schenkel Invitational until the spring of his freshman season.
“Everyone was always like, 'oh, it's the best tournament I've ever been to' and even other teams were saying how much they enjoyed it so when I teed it up for the first time, I was like, 'Wow, this is awesome!'," Barron recalls.
The support from the community, the galleries and the events surrounding the tournament are part of what make it special. For the student-athletes, the tournament has the feel of playing in a PGA Tour event.
“There's definitely some pressure because you see a lot of familiar faces, and they want the best for you and you have to realize that,” says Barron. “I hit my first tee shot right down the middle and after that, it was smooth sailing.”
He fired a 67 in the first round and followed it with a 66 in the second, which put him in the lead heading into Sunday. He played in the final group with Theo Humphrey from Vanderbilt and Sam Horsfield from Florida.
“The two kids that I played with were top-50 in the world and here I am as a freshman for Georgia Southern playing in the final group,” says Barron. “I had the lead after the first two rounds and then the nerves got the best of me, but that was the first time I had been in contention in a college event. My front nine I played bad, and then I cooled down and got my emotions in check and then I played well on the back.”
He finished tied for 15th as a freshman, struggled in the event as a sophomore and fired a 65 in the third round last year to finish third and help the Eagles win the second Schenkel title in school history. Georgia Southern tied the tournament record with a 268 team score in the final round, matching the score recorded by a Justin Thomas led Alabama squad in 2012.
Ben Carr, Jake Maples, Mason Williams and Colin Bowles will join Barron in the lineup this week. Carr, Maples and Williams were in last year’s lineup along with Barron, giving that quartet a distinction in the annals of Georgia Southern golf. They, along with Scott Wolfes and Matt Mierzejewski, who were on the first Georgia Southern team to win the Schenkel in 2014, are the only Eagles to be in the lineup attempting to defend a Schenkel title.
“We don't really think about that,” says Barron. “We're just trying to play our best. There are expectations for us because we won last year, but we're just going to go out and have fun and see what the end result is.”
The Statesboro community is passionate about the Schenkel Invitational, and there is a bit of a buzz in the air during tournament week. That sense of anticipation is in full force again this year.
“There’s definitely a buzz you feel out here playing in this tournament,” says Maples. “You feel like you have a city on your back, which we love. We love that kind of pressure, and I think we’ll thrive under it.”
As difficult as it may be, Georgia Southern head coach Carter Collins wants the Eagles to treat the tournament like any other. Being the defending champions adds another layer to the expectations.
“We told the team that we don’t have to validate what we did last year,” says Collins. “We still get to keep the rings that came with that win and still get to call ourselves Schenkel champions. We don’t have to earn it again from that perspective, but moving forward, we do have to earn it this week and everybody starts at zero. Our job this week is to prepare the best we can for this week.”
The Eagles enter the tournament coming off their second team title of the season as they won the Colleton River Collegiate March 3. The team win followed a good third round in the Gator Invitational, where they posted a 280, the second-lowest of the day. With four consecutive good rounds under their belt, it appears the Eagles may be hitting their stride.
“I don’t know if we’re peaking at the right time,” says Maples. “I think we’re just good and just figuring out how good we are.”
The teams will arrive in Statesboro today, and the annual Kids Clinic is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at Forest Heights. The practice rounds will be Thursday, and the tournament starts Friday with teams teeing off the first and 10th holes at 9 a.m.
