SMU Set For All-American Intercollegiate

SMU at the 2017 All-American Intercollegiate
Dates	Friday - Sunday; Feb. 17-19
Location	Golf Club of Houston (Par 72 \| Yards: 7,096) Humble, Texas Course \| Weather
Field	There are 18 teams participating in the 2017 All-American Intercollegiate Presented by Coca-Cola: Houston, Auburn, Baylor, Charlotte, Houston Baptist, Lamar, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, New Mexico State, Rice, Sam Houston State, Samford, SMU, South Carolina, Southeastern Louisiana, UTSA, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin.
Live Stats	GolfStat
Facebook	SMU M-Golf \| SMU Mustangs
Twitter	@SMUGolfM \| @SMUMustangs

The SMU men's golf team heads to Humble, Texas, to compete in the 2017 All-American Intercollegiate Presented by Coca-Cola. The three-day event runs Friday to Sunday at the Golf Club of Houston.The 54-hole intercollegiate, hosted by Houston and Rice, will begin Friday at 9 a.m. CT. Live results can be found on golfstat.com.

THE EVENT: The Golf Club of Houston is a 7,096-yard track, which will play at par 72. The 2017 All-American Intercollegiate Presented by Coca-Cola begins Friday at 9 a.m. CT. Saturday is slated for 9 a.m., with tee times set for 8 a.m. on Sunday.

THE FIELD: There are 18 teams participating in the 2017 All-American Intercollegiate Presented by Coca-Cola: Houston, Auburn, Baylor, Charlotte, Houston Baptist, Lamar, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, New Mexico State, Rice, Sam Houston State, Samford, SMU, South Carolina, Southeastern Louisiana, UTSA, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin.

REPRESENTING SMU:
Maxime Blandin
Alex Higgs
Ben Baxter
Daniel Connolly
Gray Townsend

LAST TIME OUT: The SMU men's golf team shot a 13-over-par 293 in the third round of the Sea Best Invitational to bring its three-round total to a 41-over-par 881. The Mustangs finished the two-day tournament 11th overall. Senior Alex Higgs finished the day at 1-over-par (71) with a pair of birdies. The Overland Park, Kan., native climbed 17 positions on the leaderboard to finish tied for 30th at 9-over-par (74-74-71 – 219). Sophomore Gray Townsend carded a 4-over 74 in the final round to finish tied for 36th at 10-over-par (73-73-74 – 220).

TOWNSEND WINS FIRST COLLEGIATE TOURNAMENT: Junior Gray Townsend fired a 2-under 68 in the final round of the Marquette Intercollegiate to earn his first collegiate tournament win, and record a career-low tournament score of 207. Townsend finished tied with Ryan Lumsden of Northwestern. In the team competition, the SMU men's golf team carded the tournament's low round, 7-under-par (273) in the final round, to finish in fourth place (+6,846), and earn its first top five finish of the season. All four counting scorers finished even or sub-par. SMU including Townsend, the Mustangs had five top-25 finishes or better, with three finishing top-10.

2015-16 RECAP: The Mustangs finished top 10 in eight of nine tournaments and was top five in four events, including two victories. SMU closed out the fall with its first victory at the Erin Hills Intercollegiate, before opening the spring season with a win at the Farms Collegiate Invitational.

BAXTER, BUCHANAN WIN U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL TITLE: SMU teammates Ben Baxter and Andrew Buchanan won the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship on May 25 after topping Brandon Cigna and Ben Warnquist, 3-and-2, at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. All square through 11 in the championship match, Baxter gave the SMU duo its first lead, draining a par putt on the 12th to win the hole. The Mustangs capitalized on a missed putt by Warnquist on the 14th to take a 2-up advantage, before stretching the lead to three with a win on 15. On the 16th hole, Buchanan lagged a birdie putt within two feet of the pin, resulting in a victory conceding par.

SMU U.S. AMATEUR SUCCESS: Since 1998, four Mustangs have won the U.S. Amateur, more than any collegiate program during that span. DeChambeau is the fourth joining the class consisted of Kelly Kraft (2011), Colt Knost (2007) and Hank Kuehne (1998).

SMU EARNS GCAA ALL-ACADEMIC AWARD: The SMU men's golf team was named a 2016 All-Academic team, as selected by the Golf Coaches Association of America. SMU, which recorded a 3.37 team GPA, is one of 113 Division I teams to earn the honor.

SCHEDULE CHANGE: Following the cancellation of the Primland Collegiate Invitational, the SMU men's golf team will play in the 2017 Southwestern Invitational on Feb. 27-28, SMU head coach Jason Enloe announced. The Southwestern Invitational is hosted by Pepperdine and will be held at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif. Prior to the addition of SMU, the field consisted of Augusta, Fresno State, Lipscomb, Michigan, Mississippi State, Oregon State, Pepperdine (host), San Diego State, UC Davis, USC and Washington State.

WELCOME TO THE HILLTOP: SMU head coach Jason Enloe has announced the addition of two student-athletes for the 2017-18 season, as McClure Meissner and Justin Thompson have signed National Letters of Intent to join the Mustangs.

McClure "Mac" Meissner makes his way to the Hilltop from San Antonio, Texas, where he attends Alamo Heights High School. He is currently ranked 49th by Golfweek and 72nd in the AJGA Polo rankings, after multiple event wins and eight top-10 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) event finishes.

Justin Thompson, a Dallas native, will stay in north Texas and join SMU after finishing at Trinity Christian Academy. In 2016, Thompson was named to the All-TJGT Team after multiple event wins and top 10 finishes. While at Trinity Christian, he was a four-year letterwinner under Marshall Edwards, serving as the golf team captain his senior year, and winning the team's MVP award his junior year.

TRINITY FOREST: NEW HOME OF SMU GOLF: Scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, Trinity Forest Golf Club will become the new home course for SMU Golf. Trinity Forest will resemble many of the great old courses of the Northeast and Great Britain, featuring a links style course on a rolling meadow with tall native grasses and dramatic bunkering and green complexes. Once complete, Trinity Forest will become the new home of the PGA TOUR's AT&T Byron Nelson Championship as well as an NCAA invitational tournament and additional high-profile professional and amateur events.

The team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw – Coore & Crenshaw, Inc. – is building both the championship golf course as well as the short course. The design of Trinity Forest will honor classic golf courses with traditional, strategic golf and great artistry as the guiding philosophy.

Located in the 6,000 acre Great Trinity Forest near the Trinity River Audubon Center about 10 minutes south of downtown Dallas, the 400 acre site will ultimately consist of an 18-hole championship golf course, a world-class practice facility, a clubhouse, a practice academy for SMU's golf teams, a teaching center for The First Tee of Greater Dallas.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ben Baxter

Maxime Blandin

Andrew Buchanan

Daniel Connolly

Alex Higgs

Gray Townsend

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